This popular American novel was a recent best seller and was favourably reviewed on TV by Oprah. The author researched the drug wars in Mexico and the struggles experienced by refugees fleeing from the brutalities of the untouchable drug lords.
A Mexican bookseller, Lydia, and her son try to flee from Mexico to America, after Javier Fuentes, a drug lord whom she had befriended in her bookshop, orders her whole family murdered when he discovers her husband is writing an expose of him.
Assuming Fuentes is hunting her to kill her too, she uses some of the dangerous escape routes to get to the border. These include: hiding in a group of American religious tourists; a completely unbelievable jumping onto a moving freight train; changing names frequently; and finally being in a small guided group of assorted people where rape and murder happens amongst them.
Critics complained it was poorly written and gave an exaggerated negative picture of Mexico, but it is fast paced and sympathetic to the terrible choices refugees are forced to make.
Sure to be a film. Our group had divided views about it.
Coming up in April - 'The Seeker and the Sage', by Brigid Delaney - An isolated village, that practices stoicism, hosts a journalist for three days. She learns about uncertainty and life affirming actions.
Meg Dillon
A Mexican bookseller, Lydia, and her son try to flee from Mexico to America, after Javier Fuentes, a drug lord whom she had befriended in her bookshop, orders her whole family murdered when he discovers her husband is writing an expose of him.
Assuming Fuentes is hunting her to kill her too, she uses some of the dangerous escape routes to get to the border. These include: hiding in a group of American religious tourists; a completely unbelievable jumping onto a moving freight train; changing names frequently; and finally being in a small guided group of assorted people where rape and murder happens amongst them.
Critics complained it was poorly written and gave an exaggerated negative picture of Mexico, but it is fast paced and sympathetic to the terrible choices refugees are forced to make.
Sure to be a film. Our group had divided views about it.
Coming up in April - 'The Seeker and the Sage', by Brigid Delaney - An isolated village, that practices stoicism, hosts a journalist for three days. She learns about uncertainty and life affirming actions.
Meg Dillon
