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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Jan 2015, 288 pages
Paperback:
Jan 2016, 288 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Poornima Apte
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An unforgettable, page-turning survival story recounted by Hector, a man trapped—perhaps fatally—inside a tanker truck during an illegal border crossing.
Héctor 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. Those left behind have no choice but to wait.
Héctor finds a name in his friend César's phone. AnniMac. A name with an American number. He must reach her, both for rescue and to pass along the message César has come so far to deliver. But are his messages going through?
Over four days, as water and food run low, Héctor 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. It exposes the tangled ties between Mexico and El Norte - land of promise and opportunity, homewrecker and unreliable friend. And it reminds us of the power of storytelling and the power of hope, as Héctor fights to ensure his message makes it out of the truck and into the world.
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.
1
Thu Apr 5—08:31 [text]
hello i am sorry to bother you but i need your assistance—i am hector—cesars friend—its an emergency now for cesar—are you in el norte? I think we are also—arizona near nogales or sonoita—since yesterday we are in this truck with no one coming—we need water and a doctor—and a torch for cutting metal
Thur Apr 5—08:48 [text]
please text me annimac—we need help
Thu Apr 5—08:59 [text]
are you there annimac? it's hector—please text me
Thu Apr 5—09:52 [text]
there was a storm—1 bar only now—ARE YOU THERE???
Thu Apr 5—10:09 [text]
1 bar—something's broken—maybe from the lightning—the helicopter came again but doesn't stop—how do they not see us? Nothing going now
Thu Apr 5—10:26 [soundfile]
Hello? I hope this works. Still one bar only but I'm recording now and when the signal comes back I will send it in a file with all the details and the...
At its best, The Jaguar’s Children is a humane look at the everyday people behind the headlines. It is said that one death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic. By the end of the novel, we begin to see why Hector and Cesar would even bother playing such a high-stakes game. In that sense Jaguar’s Children fulfills fiction’s essential function remarkably well — shining light on the human condition...continued
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(Reviewed by Poornima Apte).
Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Devil's Highway, Into the Beautiful North and The Hummingbird's Daughter
Vaillant sees the tragedy of human predation on the border for what it is - a real-world horror worthy of Stephen King. This book rushes at you relentless as a nightmare and doesn't let up until it kicks out the walls. Settle in. You're going to need a stiff drink. Make it ice water. Peter Heller, bestselling author of The Dog Stars and The Painter
Like all great castaway stories, John Vaillant's stirring novel is a tale of betweens. His characters, stranded inside an abandoned water tanker somewhere on the frontier, are between life and death; north and south; between the rich culture of their home, and a voracious pan-national corporate culture that will devour it. Philipp Meyer, author of The Son and American Rust
Like Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, John Vaillant's The Jaguar's Children will be read for a long time to come. It is a major social novel.The Jaguar's Children is based on a real-life example of migrant smuggling gone awry. Unfortunately such incidents are becoming increasingly common around the world.
It's important to note that there are differences between migrant smuggling and human trafficking even if there might be overlap between the two kinds of offenses. The United Nations defines migrant smuggling as the "procurement for financial or other material benefit of illegal entry of a person into a State of which that person is not a national or resident." Human trafficking, on the other hand, involves the recruiting, transporting, or harboring of people by means of threat, coercion, or fraud for the purpose of exploitation. That exploitation can take many ...
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