The Only Road cover

The Only Road

by Alexandra Diaz

The gang killed his cousin. Now he has to cross the desert.

For you if

you want to understand what drives a child to cross a desert alone and what that journey actually looks like

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Jaime is twelve years old in Guatemala when his cousin is killed by a gang trying to recruit him. His parents send him north with his cousin Angela — across Mexico, across the desert — to reach an uncle in New Mexico. Diaz traces the journey with documentary precision and emotional honesty. This is not a book about immigration as a political issue. It is a book about two children making an impossible journey because the alternative is death. The most important middle grade novel about Central American migration and the one that most completely refuses to reduce its characters to their circumstances.

Where This Book Lives

Setting
Guatemala • North America
Voice
Written by a Guatemalan author

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