Author | Valeria Luiselli |
---|---|
Audio read by | Valeria Luiselli[1] Kivlighan de Montebello[1] William DeMeritt[1] Maia Enrigue Luiselli[1] |
Cover artist | Valeria Luiselli (photos; courtesy of)[2] Jenny Carrow (design)[2] |
Language | English |
Set in | New York, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona |
Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
Publication date | February 12, 2019 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) and e-book |
Pages | 400 pp |
ISBN | 978-0-525-52061-0 |
863/.7 | |
LC Class | PQ7298.422.U37 L67 2019 |
Lost Children Archive is a 2019 novel by writer Valeria Luiselli. Luiselli was in part inspired by the ongoing American policy of separating children from their parents at the Mexico–United States border.[3] The novel is the first book Luiselli wrote in English.[3]
The novel details a cross-country journey from New York to Arizona in a car by a husband and wife, Mama and Papa, and their children, "the girl" and "the boy," both from previous relationships.[4][5] The novel incorporates fragments from the poetry of other poets, including from poems by Anne Carson, Galway Kinnell, and Augusto Monterroso.[2] The novel's climax, "Echo Canyon", consists of a single sentence that runs for 20 pages.[6][7] The novel ends with 24 Polaroid photos provided by Luiselli, credited to the novel's fictional stepson.[8]
The novel won the 2020 Rathbones Folio Prize and the 2021 International Dublin Literary Award.[9][10] It was also longlisted for the 2019 Booker Prize[11] and the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction.[12]