Lost Children Archive

A Novel

By: Valeria Luiselli

Narrated by: Valeria Luiselli, Kivlighan de Montebello, William DeMeritt, Maia Enrigue Luiselli

Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

"Impossibly smart, full of beauty, heart and insight.... Everyone should read this book." (Tommy Orange)

From the two-time NBCC finalist, an emotionally resonant, fiercely imaginative new novel about a family whose road trip across America collides with an immigration crisis at the Southwestern border - an indelible journey told with breathtaking imagery, spare lyricism, and profound humanity.

A mother and father set out with their two children, a boy and a girl, driving from New York to Arizona in the heat of summer. Their destination: Apacheria, the place the Apaches once called home.

Why Apaches? asks the 10-year-old son. Because they were the last of something,answers his father.

In their car, they play games and sing along to music. But on the radio, there is news about an "immigration crisis": thousands of kids trying to cross the Southwestern border into the US but getting detained - or lost in the desert along the way.

As the family drives - through Virginia to Tennessee, across Oklahoma and Texas - we sense they are on the brink of a crisis of their own. A fissure is growing between the parents, one the children can almost feel beneath their feet. They are led, inexorably, to a grand, harrowing adventure - both in the desert landscape and within the chambers of their own imaginations.

Told through several compelling voices, blending texts, sounds, and images, Lost Children Archive is an astonishing feat of literary virtuosity. It is a richly engaging story of how we document our experiences and how we remember the things that matter to us the most. With urgency and empathy, it takes us deep into the lives of one remarkable family as it probes the nature of justice and equality today.

Includes a PDF of visuals from the book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Valeria Luiselli (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“The novel truly becomes novel again in Luiselli’s hands - electric, elastic, alluring, new.... She is a superb chronicler of children: the daughter and son feel piercingly real - perceptive, irreplaceable, wonderfully odd. The book [is] an archive of curiosities, yearnings, animated by the narrator’s restless energy.... It breaks out of the rhythms of the road trip, into a heart-stopping climax." (Parul Sehgal, The New York Times)

“Daring, wholly original, brilliant...fascinating. What Luiselli has pulled off here is a twist on the great American road trip novel, a book about alienation that chronicles fractures, divides, and estrangement - of both a family and a country. It’s a remarkable feat of empathy and intellectuality that showcases Luiselli’s ability to braid the political, historical, and personal while explicitly addressing the challenges of figuring out how to tell the very story she’s telling. Luiselli is an extraordinary writer [with] a freewheeling novelist’s imagination.” (Heller McAlpin, NPR)

“Engrossing...constantly surprising - a beguiling mixture of the real and the doubly invented; a passionately engaged book [with] intellectual amplitude and moral seriousness, [and] a beautiful, loving portrait of children and of the task of looking after them. The kids are utterly alive, hurling questions and mangling adult signals: we are with the family, inside their Volvo wagon, or looking over their shoulders as they eat in diners and stay in motels. It is a pleasure to be a part of the narrator’s family; just as pleasurable is the access we gain to the narrator’s mind - a comprehensive literary intelligence.” (James Wood, The New Yorker)

ECHO...O...O...

This novel is not written in the more conventional way. At times it feels more like poetry than prose. It is full of analogies, parallels, correlations and "echos." It's about a family, no proper names are given, on a road trip from New York to Arizona. The why, how and when of the trip are all part of the story.

A Haunting Story - Mesmerizing from the First Page

Once started, you won't want to put it down. This is a deeply haunting story that will grab your heart and wrench it with the truth of life of the lost children of immigrants who simply want a good and better life for their children and who risk it all for them, even unto death. The author captures life through a lens not often understood by those of white privilege and is eye and heart opening. My prayers are for all the lost children.

poetic, not always smooth

I found parts of this book very poetic and beautiful and other parts very slow. The story and the subject covered is difficult, deep, and emotional. There are aspects to the way the story is told that I genuinely loved though at times it felt a bit disjointed - like many different stories - and I struggled to keep my focus. Alas over halfway through the book the author weaves the various stories together and the reader has a more comprehensive picture. I did appreciate the way the writing felt different than many popular books, helping to emphasize the underlying content in a very crisp, pure manner.

Beautiful language and emotionally powerful

I ended up very much enjoying the narration though I usually am not a fan of authors reading...but that even ties into the story.

Such a beautiful and thoughtful and emotional story that really should impact any human, regardless of your political affiliations.

Can’t praise it enough!

Struggled to get through.

Adult characters are self absorbed and annoying. Don't like the impersonalization of the children. I understand why author has done it.

Wow

I heard the author speak on NPR and downloaded the book because it sounded interesting. I had no idea what I was in for. Amazing in so many ways. I won’t spoil it for you. Read it for yourself.

Wonderful Listen

Let me bottom line this from the outset: I loved this book. But the first few chapters had me wondering what I was listening to, and I replayed sections a few times. I'll bet others quit before it really takes hold. I almost never like an author to read their own book. But here, it makes the story feel like a memoir. I also usually hate any manipulation or Production Value addition. But here, it adds so much texture and color to the characters and story. Well Done!

I was drawn in by the interesting intersection of the parents arcane fields of study. A marriage falling apart while the children hold on for dear life, the relevant story of missing children, the history of unprotected orphans, the issues of immigration, the crises at the boarder, and our past sins of genocide all paint a picture of our failings as human beings, while we fight our own human frailties.

But this story unfolds like a blossom, pedal by pedal and doesn't make a painful, depressing listen. That comes after the story settles into you psyche. This is a very uniquely written book. Poetic in places, lyrical in others. And definitely, better listened to than read.

Extraordinary narrative!

Immigrant families, especially children, seeking asylum, which is legal, during President Trump’s administration has been a nightmarish experience for those escaping violence and famine. Unfortunately American nationalism has rendered these asylum-seekers as less than human, creating an atmosphere of intolerance and apathy toward the children who are separated by ICE from their families and caged like animals, some of which are lost in the bureaucratic shuffle. The stories we read or hear from journalists often fail to raise our consciousness about the universality of family life & every child’s place w/in the context of this all too vital social unit.

Regardless of race, indigenous tribe, ethnic background, or nationality, Valeria Luiselli takes us through a multilayered narrative journey that will make us—as It made me—think about how much families and children have in common, and how this awareness helps us become more empathetic.

abrupt ending

Loved the story and the manner in which it was told. Thought that the father's role could have been a little more fleshed out.

Amazing book

Valeria Luiselli is a marvelous writer. Way ahead from the time and society. The imagination is far real than reality.