Jeanine Cummins, "American Dirt"

Jeanine Cummins discusses her novel, "American Dirt", at Politics and Prose.

In her powerful new novel, Cummins, author of The Crooked Branch and A Rip in Heaven, traces the experience of a successful, middle-class Mexican woman who never expected she’d have to leave her home. Lydia Quixano Pérez, married to a journalist and the mother of a son, runs a bookstore in Acapulco. She’s relatively untouched by the drug violence around her—one cartel jefe is a loyal customer, and even shares Lydia’s taste in books. But when Lydia’s husband exposes this man’s brutality in print, the family loses everything. Fleeing by train with her son, Lydia is plunged into the physical and emotional trials of la bestia, one of which is the uncertainty of what she is running to.

https://www.politics-prose.com/book/9...

Jeanine Cummins is the author of the novels The Outside Boy and The Crooked Branch, and the bestselling memoir A Rip in Heaven. She lives in New York with her husband and two children.


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Founded by Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade in 1984, Politics and Prose Bookstore is Washington, D.C.'s premier independent bookstore and cultural hub, a gathering place for people interested in reading and discussing books. Politics and Prose offers superior service, unusual book choices, and a haven for book lovers in the store and online. Visit them on the web at http://www.politics-prose.com/

Produced by Tom Warren