The Jaguar's Children - John Vaillant

n nExtraordinary ... The horrors of a single passage over the border blossom into a human history of sorrow and suffering, all of it beginning with the thirst to be free. -- NPR n n [A] heartbreaker ...

Wrenching ... with a voice fresh and plangent enough to disarm resistance. -- Boston Globe n n Fearless.

-- Globe and Mail n n Hector is trapped. The water truck, sealed to hide its human cargo, has broken down. The coyotes have taken all the passengers' money for a mechanic and have not returned.

n n Hector finds a name in his friend Cesar's phone: Annimac. A name with an American number. He must reach her, both for rescue and to pass along the message Cesar has come so far to deliver.

But are his messages going through? n n Over four days, as water and food run low, Hector tells how he came to this desperate place. His story takes us from Oaxaca -- its rich culture, its rapid change -- to the dangers of the border, exposing the tangled ties between Mexico and El Norte.

And it reminds us of the power of storytelling and the power of hope, as Hector fights to ensure his message makes it out of the truck and into the world. n n Both an outstanding suspense novel and an arresting window into the relationship between two great cultures, The Jaguar's Children shows how deeply interconnected all of us, always, are. n nThis is what novels can do -- illuminate shadowed lives, enable us to contemplate our own depths of kindness, challenge our beliefs about fate.

-- Amanda Eyre Ward, New York Times Book Reviewn