This novel is a compelling snapshot of the horrors of cartels in Mexico and other foreign countries. It is a clear vision of what can happen when a leader of a cartel is vengeful. It is the story of a young mother who lost her husband and entire family to a cartel because her husband wrote an expose’ about the leader of the cartel. The entire story recounts the terror, horror and difficulty of the mother and son to go toward safety in the U.S.
I recommend this book to anyone who doesn’t understand the need to escape for survival. It is truly a realistic picture of the dangers of leaving the life you’ve known and the trauma it costs you.
American Dirt (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars | 168,584 ratings
Price: 21.65
Last update: 08-16-2024
About this item
Number-One New York Times Best Seller
Oprah’s Book Club Pick
"Extraordinary." (Stephen King)
"This book is not simply the great American novel; it’s the great novel of las Americas. It’s the great world novel! This is the international story of our times. Masterful." (Sandra Cisneros)
También de este lado hay sueños. On this side, too, there are dreams.
Lydia Quixano Pérez 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 a few 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.
Forced to flee, Lydia and eight-year-old Luca soon find themselves miles and worlds away from their comfortable middle-class existence. Instantly transformed into migrants, Lydia and Luca ride la bestia - trains that make their way north toward the United States, which is the only place Javier’s reach doesn’t extend. As they join the countless people trying to reach el norte, Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to?
American Dirt will leave listeners utterly changed. It is a literary achievement filled with poignancy, drama, and humanity. It is one of the most important books for our times.
Already being hailed as "a Grapes of Wrath for our times" and "a new American classic", Jeanine Cummins' American Dirt is a rare exploration into the inner hearts of people willing to sacrifice everything for a glimmer of hope.
"Narrator Yareli Arizmendi illuminates the humanity and individuality of Latin American migrants as they flee toward refuge in the North.... The account of Lydia and Luca's travails, including terrifying rides atop Mexico's freight trains, is utterly compelling. But it is Arizmendi's voicing of Lydia, so full of fierce tenderness, that will stay with listeners after the story's close." (AudioFile Magazine)
Amazon.com Best Books of the Year - 2020
Boston Globe Best Books of the Year - 2020
Top reviews from the United States
Huglady5.0 out of 5 stars
American Dirt
Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2024Angela Schroeder5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully written story
Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2024
My heart aches after reading this book. I’ve always had empathy for those who have to travel to cross borders to get to a safer living, but I don’t read much news about what’s going on in these different places of the world. I probably have blinders on that I shouldn’t, but reading about the struggles everyone endured to lead them to that path just broke my heart. I feel so bad for Soledad and Rebecca, they were so young traveling alone, they knew it was for the better but such a dangerous time for them. This was a beautifully written story and one I will recommend to friends.
Kimberly4.0 out of 5 stars
Latin American migrant experience depictions that are suspenseful and believable
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2021
Jeanine Cummins tells the story of a family that experiences a tremendous loss and are forced to become migrants running for their lives from a cartel in this epic tale. Imagine everything horrible that can happen to a migrant, based on the news stories that you’ve heard, and almost all of that happens to one of the characters in this novel. Lydia Perez, her husband Sebastian, and her 8-year-old son Luca live a simple but comfortable life in Acapulco, Mexico, when one terrible momentous day everything changes. Sebastian is a newspaper reporter, who writes a story about the cartel that both Sebastian and Lydia think is innocuous enough. Lydia is the business owner of a bookstore, but she also has a connection to Sebastian’s investigative reporting into the cartels. In short, they both judge wrongly that they are safe, and the price that they pay is devastatingly high.
Readers should be weary Cummins does not shy away from any of the atrocities that happen to migrants. There are themes of death, suicide, trauma, rape, and kidnap throughout. Sex trafficking is implied at points. If you are currently triggered by any of these, this may not be the season for you to read this book.
Cummins concentrates her descriptive prose on the migrants in this novel, not the cartel. In the Author’s Note at the end of the novel Cummins states that she wanted to write about the migrant experience, not the cartel practices as other books have done, and I think she successfully accomplished it. Cummins describes the Perez’s in relatable ways, as a “regular” Mexican family, whose actions happen to impact a cartel member, which causes their lives to forever be changed. Readers can almost picture their own family as being just like the Perez family, the way Cummins describes their values and everyday lives before they have little choice but to become migrants.
As the main characters start on their travel to “El Northe,” Lydia and Luca meet several other migrants. Some of them are nefarious criminals and should not be trusted, and some are innocent victims of circumstance just like themselves. Of course, Lydia and Luca cannot tell who is trustworthy and who is not, but the plot backs them into corners several times, and they must decide. Cummins adequately creates suspense in those moments when readers are also trying to discern if Lydia and Luca are going to be betrayed, robbed, or otherwise harmed. Most of the migrant travelers are men, so Lydia and Luca are especially vulnerable being a woman and young child.
Some of the characters that Lydia and Luca decide to trust include a pair of sisters, and another young boy who is 10. It is these characters, as well as the main characters of Lydia and Luca, that Cummins spends the most time on. The way Cummins describes her characters background and motivation made it easy for me to feel invested in their safely crossing the border. I think most readers will find they care about the primary migrant characters, and that feeling intensifies the story.
Another complication of Lydia and Luca’s escape is how abruptly they leave. This was not a well-planned journey they decided to take. It is a spur-of-the-moment fleeing, and not from their house but from someone else’s residence immediately after a violent attack. Because of this, Lydia has just moments to grab what she can and make life altering decisions about where to go and how to get to “El Northe.” This plot line gives Cummins liberty to have Lydia explore different methods that migrants use to get to the border of America and cross. At points, these portions read more like a social studies textbook than a literary novel and I felt my attention slip from the story, however temporary.
The method that Lydia embarks on is to jump on top of a series of trains that are traveling north. Cummins has Lydia reason through why this is the best of the equally horrible methods of traveling north. Her descriptions of how the migrants board the train, what it is like to travel on them, how they get off the train and what the repercussions are of using the trains are superb. I was left wondering how she could describe this experience of traveling so well without having jumped on top of a train herself to experience it.
Although portions of the novel felt like I was reading Cummins research for a non-fiction book, I feel like I learned a lot about the experience of migrants. I confess that before reading this book I did not much consider the reasons for people to try to cross America’s border, how they do it, or the perils of doing so. I have a great deal of compassion for migrants, but being in the Midwest of the U.S., honestly most weeks not a thought crosses my mind about America’s borders. Therefore, having much to learn, I finished Cummins book feeling like I accomplished a more in-depth understanding of the life-threatening danger and hardships that migrants endure.
I am vaguely aware there was some controversy about this book when it released. I believe this centered around the fact that Cummins herself is not Latin American, nor has she been a migrant. Certainly, I would love to read a first-hand account of a crossing written by a migrant. Realistically, I can also understand the difficulties a migrant would have to overcome in order to write about that experience. In the absence of a first-hand account, I think American Dirt is Cummins’s attempt to be an ambassador for migrants by raising to attention some of the terrifying experiences they go through. In my opinion, there are no silent allies, therefore I deeply appreciate what I can only assume is her successful attempt to honor the migrant experience by describing a fair depiction. I am grateful for the deeper compassion for migrants that it afforded me.
Readers should be weary Cummins does not shy away from any of the atrocities that happen to migrants. There are themes of death, suicide, trauma, rape, and kidnap throughout. Sex trafficking is implied at points. If you are currently triggered by any of these, this may not be the season for you to read this book.
Cummins concentrates her descriptive prose on the migrants in this novel, not the cartel. In the Author’s Note at the end of the novel Cummins states that she wanted to write about the migrant experience, not the cartel practices as other books have done, and I think she successfully accomplished it. Cummins describes the Perez’s in relatable ways, as a “regular” Mexican family, whose actions happen to impact a cartel member, which causes their lives to forever be changed. Readers can almost picture their own family as being just like the Perez family, the way Cummins describes their values and everyday lives before they have little choice but to become migrants.
As the main characters start on their travel to “El Northe,” Lydia and Luca meet several other migrants. Some of them are nefarious criminals and should not be trusted, and some are innocent victims of circumstance just like themselves. Of course, Lydia and Luca cannot tell who is trustworthy and who is not, but the plot backs them into corners several times, and they must decide. Cummins adequately creates suspense in those moments when readers are also trying to discern if Lydia and Luca are going to be betrayed, robbed, or otherwise harmed. Most of the migrant travelers are men, so Lydia and Luca are especially vulnerable being a woman and young child.
Some of the characters that Lydia and Luca decide to trust include a pair of sisters, and another young boy who is 10. It is these characters, as well as the main characters of Lydia and Luca, that Cummins spends the most time on. The way Cummins describes her characters background and motivation made it easy for me to feel invested in their safely crossing the border. I think most readers will find they care about the primary migrant characters, and that feeling intensifies the story.
Another complication of Lydia and Luca’s escape is how abruptly they leave. This was not a well-planned journey they decided to take. It is a spur-of-the-moment fleeing, and not from their house but from someone else’s residence immediately after a violent attack. Because of this, Lydia has just moments to grab what she can and make life altering decisions about where to go and how to get to “El Northe.” This plot line gives Cummins liberty to have Lydia explore different methods that migrants use to get to the border of America and cross. At points, these portions read more like a social studies textbook than a literary novel and I felt my attention slip from the story, however temporary.
The method that Lydia embarks on is to jump on top of a series of trains that are traveling north. Cummins has Lydia reason through why this is the best of the equally horrible methods of traveling north. Her descriptions of how the migrants board the train, what it is like to travel on them, how they get off the train and what the repercussions are of using the trains are superb. I was left wondering how she could describe this experience of traveling so well without having jumped on top of a train herself to experience it.
Although portions of the novel felt like I was reading Cummins research for a non-fiction book, I feel like I learned a lot about the experience of migrants. I confess that before reading this book I did not much consider the reasons for people to try to cross America’s border, how they do it, or the perils of doing so. I have a great deal of compassion for migrants, but being in the Midwest of the U.S., honestly most weeks not a thought crosses my mind about America’s borders. Therefore, having much to learn, I finished Cummins book feeling like I accomplished a more in-depth understanding of the life-threatening danger and hardships that migrants endure.
I am vaguely aware there was some controversy about this book when it released. I believe this centered around the fact that Cummins herself is not Latin American, nor has she been a migrant. Certainly, I would love to read a first-hand account of a crossing written by a migrant. Realistically, I can also understand the difficulties a migrant would have to overcome in order to write about that experience. In the absence of a first-hand account, I think American Dirt is Cummins’s attempt to be an ambassador for migrants by raising to attention some of the terrifying experiences they go through. In my opinion, there are no silent allies, therefore I deeply appreciate what I can only assume is her successful attempt to honor the migrant experience by describing a fair depiction. I am grateful for the deeper compassion for migrants that it afforded me.
Marilynn Mollica5.0 out of 5 stars
This book changed my perspective
Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2024
I couldn't read this book quickly. The story is so powerful and thoughtful that I really wanted to unpack what I had read before I
moved on. The characters become a part of you so quickly that you want to get back to them to make sure they're safe. The story is about a mother and her young son who are fleeing their home in Mexico after their entire family has been slaughtered by the cartel. Their only recourse is escape to the US where they know no one and have no idea how to get there. The mother, Lydia, owns a bookstore, but can't access her funds to protect her identity from the cartel who want to kill her, too. Her sole purpose is to keep her child safe and start a new life. I don't want to say any more about the plot except this: I knew nothing of the migrant journey. I thought I did. The story of this journey and the people who made it with stay with you for a long time. When you hear a news story about the border or about immigration or asylum, think of Lydia and Luca, or Beto, or Soledad and Rebeca, or Marisol. And remember these immigrants are humans.
moved on. The characters become a part of you so quickly that you want to get back to them to make sure they're safe. The story is about a mother and her young son who are fleeing their home in Mexico after their entire family has been slaughtered by the cartel. Their only recourse is escape to the US where they know no one and have no idea how to get there. The mother, Lydia, owns a bookstore, but can't access her funds to protect her identity from the cartel who want to kill her, too. Her sole purpose is to keep her child safe and start a new life. I don't want to say any more about the plot except this: I knew nothing of the migrant journey. I thought I did. The story of this journey and the people who made it with stay with you for a long time. When you hear a news story about the border or about immigration or asylum, think of Lydia and Luca, or Beto, or Soledad and Rebeca, or Marisol. And remember these immigrants are humans.
Amazon Customer5.0 out of 5 stars
Thought Provoking Read
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2024
I will admit, I was late reading this book. The title nor the cover grabbed me as many books do. I wasn’t familiar with this author. During a recent trip with a good friend, she recommended this book. So I read it. I have to say I wish I would have read it earlier.
I teach elementary school in a more rural area of the United States. My school is in the heart of the opioid crises. It has only been in the past 5 years or so that my school has even had students from other countries. I have never had a problem seeing those students as individuals. I will admit that when I see groups of people on the news trying to come to our country, I seldom think in terms of individuals.
This book has accomplished the author’s goal of helping me see groups of people as a collection of individuals rather than one entity. This would be good required reading for young people in our high schools.
I teach elementary school in a more rural area of the United States. My school is in the heart of the opioid crises. It has only been in the past 5 years or so that my school has even had students from other countries. I have never had a problem seeing those students as individuals. I will admit that when I see groups of people on the news trying to come to our country, I seldom think in terms of individuals.
This book has accomplished the author’s goal of helping me see groups of people as a collection of individuals rather than one entity. This would be good required reading for young people in our high schools.
9Perks5.0 out of 5 stars
Devastating and full of an indomitable hope
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2024
This was a hard book to read, much like books about the Holocaust. The imagery and depth of emotion made you feel the journey. No matter your stance on immigrants, this book will make you consider the subject at a deep level. It was heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time. Beautiful.