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The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border Audiobook
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NAMED A TOP 10 BOOK OF 2018 BY NPR and THE WASHINGTON POST WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE IN CURRENT INTEREST FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE NONFICTION AWARD The instant New York Times bestseller, "A must-read for anyone who thinks 'build a wall' is the answer to anything." --Esquire For Francisco Cantú, the border is in the blood: his mother, a park ranger and daughter of a Mexican immigrant, raised him in the scrublands of the Southwest. Driven to understand the hard realities of the landscape he loves, Cantú joins the Border Patrol. He and his partners learn to track other humans under blistering sun and through frigid nights. They haul in the dead and deliver to detention those they find alive. Plagued by a growing awareness of his complicity in a dehumanizing enterprise, he abandons the Patrol for civilian life. But when an immigrant friend travels to Mexico to visit his dying mother and does not return, Cantú discovers that the border has migrated with him, and now he must know the full extent of the violence it wreaks, on both sides of the line.
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“Lays bare, in damning light, the casual brutality of the system, how unjust laws and private prisons and a militarized border have shattered families and mocked America’s myths about itself.”
— New York Times Book Review
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“[Cantú‘s] beautifully written account of a life between nations cuts through the politics surrounding “the wall” to probe what’s really at stake.”
— O, The Oprah Magazine -
“[Cantú‘s] life on the line has made him the kind of expert we need to hear from.”
— Boston Globe -
“The best book on immigration you will read this year.”
— Mother Jones -
“A book that whips across your face like a sandstorm, embedding bits of the desert into your skin that, like it or not, you’ll carry forward.”
— San Francisco Chronicle -
“Beautiful, eloquent and timely…[Cantú‘s] your correspondent if you want the real story.”
— Cleveland Plain Dealer -
“Fresh, urgent…A devastating narrative of the very real human effects of depersonalized policy.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review) -
“Cantú’s rich prose and deep empathy make this an indispensable look at one of America’s most divisive issues.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Awards
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A New York Times bestseller
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An Amazon Editor’s Top Pick of 2018 (So FAr)
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An Amazon Best Book of the Month
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Longlisted for the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize for Nonfiction
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An Esquire Magazine Pick of Best Nonfiction Books of 2018 (So Far)
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Shortlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction
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Winner of the 2018 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Current Interest
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Finalist for the 2019 Indies Choice Book Award
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About Francisco Cantú
Francisco Cantú served as an agent for the United States Border Patrol from 2008 to 2012, working in the deserts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. A former Fulbright fellow, he is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and a 2017 Whiting Award. His writing and translations have been featured in Best American Essays, Harper’s, n+1, Orion, and Guernica, as well as on This American Life.