| By Gale Staff |
Lost Children Archive will be releasing in May, in our large print format, and is a must-have for all libraries. This most recent novel from Valeria Luiselli, is receiving rave reviews for its “politically relevant” and “poignant” storytelling. Narrated by an unnamed woman, this richly engaging story revolves around the woman, her unnamed husband and their two children’s summer road trip from New York City to the southeast corner of Arizona.
“Engrossing…brilliantly intricate and constantly surprising—a passionately engaged book [with] intellectual amplitude and moral seriousness, [and] a beautiful, loving portrait of children and of the task of looking after them… It is a pleasure to be a part of the narrator’s family; just as pleasurable is the access we gain to the narrator’s mind—a comprehensive literary intelligence. She thinks about belonging and not belonging, and about borders and the dead. As this complex novel turns, the back-seat kids are the ones who must tell the story. . . what ensues is a gripping and fantastical tale. An intensely allusive, beguiling mixture of the real and the doubly invented. Luiselli [is] playful and brave.”
“Poignant, intense, keenly timely… Luiselli is no stranger to inventive storytelling; [this] latest work is perhaps her most politically relevant. A couple and their children embark on a cross-country road trip from New York City to Arizona; the scale of the migrant crisis redirects their efforts. Stories of Latin American asylum seekers and the disappeared Apaches overlap and converge; themes of translation and migration resonate. This is one of few novels that fully and powerfully conveys the urgency of this unsettling situation.”
– Booklist (starred review)
“Remarkable, inventive… A family treks south to the U.S.-Mexico border, bearing tales of the anguish of migrant families all the way down. The opening sections are thick with literary references and social critique; imagine On the Road rewritten by Maggie Nelson. But the story darkens as they witness the [families’] plight firsthand, and later, as the couple’s children stumble into their own crisis. As the novel rises to a ferocious climax, Luiselli thunderously, persuasively insists that reckoning with the border will make deep demands of our emotional reserves. A powerful border story, at once intellectual and heartfelt.”
– Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Superb, powerful, eloquent. Juxtaposing rich, poetic prose with direct storytelling, and alternating narratives with photos, documents, poems, maps, and music, LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVE explores what holds a family and society together, and what pulls them apart. The novel begins with a family embarking on a road trip, and culminates in an indictment of the tragic shortcomings of the immigration process. Luiselli demonstrates how callousness toward other cultures erodes our own. Her novel makes a devastating case for compassion.”
– Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Large print titles are available to purchase through Thorndike Press and through all major wholesalers.Shop Sneakers in Footwear