21 with a hefty first printing of half a million copies, set off a bidding war between nine publishers and sold to Flatiron Books in a seven-figure deal. Whether or not it succeeds in reshaping readers’ views, “American Dirt” - which chronicles Lydia and Luca’s grueling and treacherous journey of more than 1,000 miles - seems poised to become one of this year’s biggest breakout works of fiction. The character’s insight is a deliberate provocation by the author, who wants readers to reckon with the humanitarian cost of America’s broken immigration policies. “She’s wondered with the sort of detached fascination of the comfortable elite, how dire the conditions of their lives must be wherever they come from, that this is the better option.”

“All her life she’s pitied those poor people,” Cummins writes. As she researches what they will need to survive the journey, it dawns on Lydia that she and Luca aren’t pretending. Traumatized and desperate, Lydia hatches a risky escape plan: She and Luca will disguise themselves as migrants and attempt to cross the border into Arizona. Lydia and her 8-year-old son, Luca, are fleeing from their home in Acapulco, Mexico, after hit men from a drug cartel killed 16 members of their family. The family went through a terrible time with nearly endless heartbreak and no family member emerged unscathed.During one of many harrowing moments in Jeanine Cummins’s new novel, “American Dirt,” the protagonist, a bookstore owner named Lydia, has a jarring realization. Her brother Tom managed to escape and get some help, but he would find that his nightmare was only beginning. Her memoir, A Rip in Heaven is her true story of the night in 1991 when her brother and two cousins were assaulted on the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, outside of St.

They make their way towards the United States where they make the transformation from happy middle class family to poor migrants. When this is published, their lives will never be the same and the family is forced to flee the city. The man is Javier, the boss of the drug cartel that is taking over the town and the same man that her husband is writing a tell-all profile on. One day a charming man comes into her shop and buys a few of her favorite books. While the drug cartels are out there and entering Acapulco, they mostly leave her life untouched. She is married to a journalist and the two have a son named Luca. If You Like Jeanine Cummins Books, You’ll Love…Īmerican Dirt is the story of Lydia Quixano Pérez who runs a book store in Acapulco, Mexico.

The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins