Welcome to Litsy!

This isn‘t an easy read and it pairs well with “Everyone who is Gone is Here”. Following the human smugglers who are the guides or coyotes for people who are leaving Central America and migrating to Mexico or the US. It‘s intense, complicated, and told with humanity. Excellent!

Thanks for the tag @TheSpineView and @Eggs

#wonderouswednesday

1. Lilacs bring back the memory of growing up on the farm
2. I remember hanging out with my dad and grandpa all summer long

@BethM @peaKnit @JenReadsAlot

#ReadTheWorld2025

In March and April I‘ve read 7 books set in or written by author from places around the world: #Italy #Switzerland #Iraq #France #Iran #Denmark #Mexico #Argentina

I have the #InternationalBooker to thank for most of these books!

This is my pick for #fictionaltraveler for May!

#DynamicDs Day 20: #Devil

#dynamicds #dessert
@Eggs @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

“Every 2 hours and 25 minutes, a woman in #Mexico is strangled, raped, dismembered, burned alive, mutilated, beaten to pulp, and left with bruises and broken bones.”

Combine these gruesome facts on femicide with living the high life of drugs, money, cosmetic surgery and Instagram followers and you probably have the span of Mexican society and of this #InternationalBooker collection of short stories. A good one.

#ReadingTheWorld2025

In this atmospheric noir novel set in Mexico in the 1970s, Maite is a dissatisfied secretary who livens up her life with romance comics, lies, and the occasional petty theft, while Elvis is a member of the Hawks, hired thugs trained to violently disrupt student protests. As they both become embroiled in the search for a missing young woman, Maite and Elvis each seek escape through music and glimpses of beauty in a tedious and often violent world.

Not going to lie, I struggled with this book because I read it in Spanish. It was full of mysticism and was a great insight into the hardships of an abandoned town in Mexico during the cristero period as Juan Preciado returns to find his father.
I‘ll eventually reread it in English because I feel I may have lost some nuances. Overall, I recommend.

5 ⭐️ for the content and engaging style.

Very valuable in helping to understand the mechanisms of migration in Latin America. Jason spent 6 years among and studying the culture of human smugglers.

The word “hope” in the subtitle is misleading. It‘s not hope for the crisis ending, it‘s the hope both migrants and many smugglers have of escaping desperate poverty & violence.

Now downloading his first book which is focused on migrants.