The novel takes readers on a journey as the pair travels across Mexico. What makes this novel even more compelling is that Lydia had developed a strong friendship with the drug kingpin before she understood Javier’s role in extortion and killing sprees. Lydia manages to escape Acapulco using cash and the bus system, but when she tries to board a plane and can’t produce a birth certificate for her son, Lydia and Luca join a slew of undocumented immigrants hitchhiking on top of La Bestia (the train) to get to the United States (El Norte). The novel opens with the murder of 16 members of Lydia’s family, including her husband, forcing Lydia and Luca to run for their lives. Lydia’s husband, Sebastian, a newspaper reporter, had angered a cartel kingpin with an exposé story he wrote. American Dirt (Flatiron Books, 2020, 387 pages, hardcover, $16.75) by Jeanine Cummins is the story of a middle-class Mexican woman, Lydia, and her 8-year-old son, Luca, whose lives are torn apart during a quinceañera party.
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