The Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli

I passionately spoke for this novel to make the cut on Library Journal's ten best list but alas.....perhaps I can convince you readers instead. So often I complain that there isn't an original plot under the sun, that everything new has been done before. I guess that's why Luiselli's imaginative, original, heartbreaking novel impressed me so much. 

We see the children in the news every day, their emotionally ravaged faces, their gorgeous dark eyes shyly peering out at the cameras from behind the bars of whichever state sponsored holding pen the border patrol agents have consigned them to. Will they ever see their families again we wonder. Valeria Luiselli's "The Lost Children Archive" will ignite a fire in your heart without providing the water hose to squelch it. 

An unnamed family sets out on a summer road trip from New York City to Arizona. Freelance journalists, each of the parents has a singular agenda. Dad is researching the 

history of the lost Apache tribes, while mom has a generalized plan to document family separation at the border, specifically looking for a friend's two missing girls, for whose safe crossing she has paid dearly. 

In the back seat of the car are two children, step-siblings, dad's son and mom's daughter. It's a credit to Luiselli's remarkable narrative skills that she creates two anonymous children who become so fully alive on the page. Their intuition is such that they understand before we do that this adventure, meant to unite the family, may well drive a permanent rift between their stubborn, individualistic parents. The boy, older and less trusting of the world, will nevertheless call upon his boundless imagination to protect and care for his baby sister with a love that will force a catch in your throat.

Luiselli pens scenes that will stay with you for ages. Mom has read of a government plan to round up undocumented children and fly them back to Mexico. Whether or not they are actually Mexican doesn't seem to matter. They drive to the airfield, protected by armed guards, unsure what they can do except helplessly watch as, on the horizon, they see the little silhouettes weighted down with a single backpack each, being herded on to the jet. Later in the story, the children see other children much like themselves clinging to the roof of a freight train as it speeds away from ICE agents who are actually firing at them. An indelible image indeed.

This novel appeared daunting to me, especially since we were reading on a specific time frame, yet it surprised and haunted me. Though rife with facts it reads like a parable. Storytelling and myth making are extolled. The slow fading of love between the parents is beautifully rendered while the profound love they hold for their children is palpable. Unabashedly political yet deeply personal this eye-opening novel definitely makes my top ten.