American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

A special thank you to Libro.fm and Macmillan Audio for an audiobook listening copy.

The novel opens with one of the best hooks I've ever read: in a neighbourhood in Acapulco, gunmen open fire and murder 16 people at a family barbecue. Lydia and her eight-year-old son, Luca, survived because they were hiding in the shower at the time of the attack.

Lydia knows they need to escape to avoid the same fate as the rest of her family that includes her mother and husband, Sebastián. He was a journalist who wrote a tell-all about the local cartel and this is the reason that everyone is dead. She knows this to be true because of the man who used to frequent her book store. Javier purchased some of Lydia's personal favourite books, he was intelligent and charmed her, but but unbeknownst to Lydia, Javier is the leader of the newest drug cartel that has taken over the city.

Forced to flee, Lydia and Luca are on the run. They transform into migrants, and are trying to make their way el norte to the United States—the only place Javier can't reach them. What unfolds is their dangerous and harrowing journey.

Full disclosure: I listened to this book a few weeks ago and I knew nothing about it at the time. My heart sank when I heard the afterward where Cummins says; "I wished someone slightly browner than me would write it," because I (wrongly) assumed she was a Latinx author.⁣⁣

There are many reviews that point out the gross inaccuracies and racial stereotypes. Even though this is a work of fiction, I feel mislead. This book was marketed as being written by an own voices author, but that is not correct—Cummins hasn't identified as being Latinx until now. Convenient? Absolutely.
⁣⁣
That being said, there have been a lot of discussion surrounding the book—people are having constructive dialogue and I think that’s a fantastic start. I have started a list of books by Latinx authors as a result of reading articles about American Dirt which include: The Devil's Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea; Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez; Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera; and Where We Come From by Oscar Cásares. This is an important conversation. Please keep talking, educating, and recommending #ownvoices and Latinx authors—comment below with your favourite so I can add it to my TBR pile.   ⁣⁣

BUY NOW