A "why didn't I read this sooner?" book that delivers on structure, style, and substance
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
-
Valeria Luiselli
13 min read
The article centers on a review of Lost Children Archive - learning about Luiselli's background as a Mexican-American author, her previous works, and her involvement in immigration advocacy provides essential context for understanding the novel's themes about the U.S.-Mexico border and migrant children
-
Apache Wars
13 min read
The novel's father character is pursuing a project on Apache history in Arizona - understanding this series of armed conflicts between the United States and various Apache nations provides historical context for the parallel the novel draws between historical displacement of Native peoples and contemporary immigration
-
2014 American immigration crisis
14 min read
The novel deals directly with children detained at the U.S.-Mexico border, which references this specific crisis when tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors crossed the border - this historical context illuminates the real events that inspired Luiselli's fiction
Readers, I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving if you’re in the U.S. or an otherwise wonderful week if not. We had a great time with family on the east coast. Louise is enthralled with her cousins and getting to see her relationships with them deepen over visits is a true delight.
This year, I’m feeling particularly thankful for this community of readers and the work I get to do. Even though there are frustrating or annoying aspects of my job as there are with any job, I feel lucky every day to get to do this work and spend my time talking about books with all of you. I’ve been mulling over what else I want to bring to this space in the new year, and I’m really excited to start letting you in on that in the coming weeks. But one small thing I’d like to implement is being more direct about asking you what you read or are reading this week. I’ll be including this question at the end of “This Week in Books” each Sunday, and I do hope you’ll make use of it! I would love to chat more about books in the comments, get to know all of you better as readers, and get some recommendations for my own TBR!
This week in books.
This week I read…
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli. One downside of reading so much and working in the book world, is I can start to feel like I’ve read books I haven’t. Many books are predictable. And sometimes I can begin to feel like I already understand books that have been in the zeitgeist and on my radar for a good bit of time. It’s a strange mental deception that has kept me from reading some books I’ll surely love and that will surely surprise me, which is exactly what happened with Lost Children Archive. Thank goodness I finally got over my block and selected this for the FictionMatters Book Club because I thought it was exceptional.
This novel begins with a family—a single mother with a daughter who meets, falls in love with, and marries a single father of a son. For many years, the mother and father have worked together recording and documenting the sounds of New York City, but the father has a growing interest in Apache history and wants to travel to Arizona ...
This excerpt is provided for preview purposes. Full article content is available on the original publication.