American Dirt

Score: 4/5 Bookmarks

Thank you to Flatiron Books and Libro.fm for the review copies of American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins.

The tension, the angst, the heartbreak. I finished it a few days ago, but I can’t stop thinking about it. There were so many times I didn’t realize I was physically holding my breath, waiting.
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This book has certainly been polarizing, and the author has said that she was reluctant to write from a Mexican migrant’s point of view because that has not been her personal life experience, but she brought Lydia and Luca to life on the pages and told those characters’ story. It is a work of fiction, and whether it is accurate or not, or parts are the book are problematic, it has prompted me to seek out books by Mexican authors on the subject and realistically I’m not sure that would have happened had this book not come across my path. If it makes you stop and think about a human existence other than your own, fictional or otherwise, then I believe it has done what it set out to do. I shed tears for the characters, and as a mother I sympathized with the anguish that every mother feels at the thought of harm befalling their child.

The audiobook was beautifully narrated by Yareli Arizmendi and you can check it out by clicking the button below, or you can grab the physical copy here.

Synopsis:

American Dirt is a rare exploration into the inner hearts of people willing to sacrifice everything for a glimmer of hope.

Lydia Quixano Perez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable.

Even though she knows they'll never sell, Lydia stocks some of her all-time favorite books in her store. And then one day a man enters the shop to browse and comes up to the register with four books he would like to buy--two of them her favorites. Javier is erudite. He is charming. And, unbeknownst to Lydia, he is the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city. When Lydia's husband's tell-all profile of Javier is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.

American Dirt will leave readers utterly changed. It is a page-turner; it is a literary achievement; it is filled with poignancy, drama, and humanity on every page. It is one of the most important books for our times.