Just read two books in a row that ripped my heart out. I'm still looking for it. If you see it, please return it to me.
The Confession by John Grisham. About an innocent teenager - black - wrongly accused of murder, found guilty, and eventually executed. That alone should make you want to secede from the human race. But it gets worse. The story exposes the greed, corruption, hatred, prejuduce, and lust for power that must exist for something like that to happen. And you know it's true.
It turns your stomach.
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. About a family living in Acapulco, a city that is getting progressively more dangerous due to the rise of another cartel. The wife owns a bookstore, the husband is a journalist. Normal people living normal lives. The husband writes a profile of the most recent drug lord to rise to power. The drug lord reads it. The next thing you know 16 members of the journalist's family are gunned down at a party. The only survivors are the wife and her eight year old son. She decides that escaping to America is her only option.
The story describes in great detail the horrors of making that trip from Mexico, illegally, into America. The violence and fear that haunts the immigrants every step of the way. Robbery, murder, rape, abuse. They are attacked, their money is stolen, they are lied to and taken advantage of. They end up putting their faith and all of their money into the hands of a "coyote", who promises to safely escort them into this country. A person they don't know, have never met.
Whatever your opinion, these people are humans. Desperate for a better life, which is ironic given the current state of this country.
At the end of the book Jeanine Cummins talks about her inspiration for writing it. She ends her comments by quoting graffiti she saw written on the border wall in Tijuana: "On this side, too, there are dreams."
'Nuff said.
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