Solito

"Poet Zamora presents an immensely moving story of desperation and hardship in this account of his childhood migration from El Salvador to the U.S."

"Zamora treks through his own memories and nightmares, revisiting a childhood that was lost."

"special for many reasons, but the main one is Zamora's voice and the energy of his vivid retelling of his journey ..."

"The magic of this book lies not only in the beguiling voice of young Javier, or the harrowing journey and immense bravery of the migrants, or in the built-in hero's journey of this narrative...The magic comes from the deep humanity with which Zamora tells the story...It is not romantic; no one is an angel or a superhero...No one is pure evil...These are flawed and complicated people caught in a flawed and complicated system that compels them to leave their countries and then punishes them for doing so...And while 'Solito' has nothing overtly political to say about this deeply politicized subject, it feels like the beating heart at the very center of all the noise."

"It's too long, and it contains many Spanish phrases that are never translated."

"The harrowing journey of a 9-year-old Salvadoran boy through Guatemala and Mexico to rejoin his parents in the U.S...The author, now a poet who has been both a Stegner and Radcliffe fellow, meticulously re-creates his tense, traumatic journey, creating a page-turning narrative that reads like fiction...Sprinkling Spanish words and phrases throughout, Zamora fashions fully fleshed portraits of his fellow travelers—e.g., a protective mother and her daughter and a variety of men who assumed leadership responsibilities—as they navigated buses and boats, packing into a single room in motels, passing through checkpoints (not always successfully), and walking for days in the desert with little food or water...Along the way, the migrants, most of them desperately trying to reach their families in the U.S., also had to learn Mexican words and change their accents in order to remain inconspicuous and avoid the dreaded La Migra...Beautifully wrought work that renders the migrant experience into a vivid, immediately accessible portrayal."

"This heart-pounding, vivid recollection of a desperate path to a better life takes readers every terrifying step of the way ..."

"I wish there was a section at the end of the book with translations for some of the frequently used words...On the other hand, the liberal use of Spanish and Spanish slang does make Solito feel more authentic."