Lucky Boy

De: Shanthi Sekaran

Narrado por: Soneela Nankani, Roxana Ortega

A gripping tale of adventure and searing reality, Lucky Boy gives voice to two mothers bound together by their love for one lucky boy.

“Sekaran has written a page-turner that’s touching and all too real.”—People

“A fiercely compassionate story about the bonds and the bounds of motherhood and, ultimately, of love.”—Cristina Henríquez, author of The Book of Unknown Americans

Eighteen years old and fizzing with optimism, Solimar Castro-Valdez embarks on a perilous journey across the Mexican border. Weeks later, she arrives in Berkeley, California, dazed by first love found then lost, and pregnant. This was not the plan. Undocumented and unmoored, Soli discovers that her son, Ignacio, can become her touchstone, and motherhood her identity in a world where she’s otherwise invisible.

Kavya Reddy has created a beautiful life in Berkeley, but then she can’t get pregnant and that beautiful life seems suddenly empty. When Soli is placed in immigrant detention and Ignacio comes under Kavya’s care, Kavya finally gets to be the singing, story-telling kind of mother she dreamed of being. But she builds her love on a fault line, her heart wrapped around someone else’s child.

“Nacho” to Soli, and “Iggy” to Kavya, the boy is steeped in love, but his destiny and that of his two mothers teeters between two worlds as Soli fights to get back to him. Lucky Boy is a moving and revelatory ode to the ever-changing borders of love.

Great Read

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. An absolute must read. The narration was clear and entertaining.

Great book!

I really enjoyed this book. It gave me insight to many sides of immigration, the challenges we have in our system and how both women in the story had to live with sorrow and heartbreak. I thought it would be easy to find one point of view "right" and the other "wrong", but instead saw the story from both sides and feel for both women.

Leaves a lot to think about.

Interesting adventure but it opens the mind to some important issues that do not have any good solutions in our imperfect world. Mistakes were made, but they were honest mistakes albeit illegal. They were born out of hearts that were driven by a desire/need for a better and happier life with no intention of hurting anyone. It is hard for me to blame anyone for that.

This book is a page-turner for sure!

Would you consider the audio edition of Lucky Boy to be better than the print version?

Loved listening to this book. I'm sure the print version would be just as engaging!

Laura

This is my new favorite book! I loved it. The characters and the little boy, the author wrote it so well the reader could totally picture it all happening. I plan on reading more books by this author.

What a wonderful performance

I was absolutely immersed in the performance of this beautiful, thoughtful, poignant story. The characters were brought to life with the wonderful accents and rhythm of language. One of my favorites.

Magnificent

As a voracious reader for over 60 years, and a former foster child, I was interested in the premise of the story so I decided to listen. Turns out this was one of the best books I have ever read/listened to, and I'm sure I will listen/read it again and again though I never do that. I will also read/listen everything Sekaran has written and everything that Nankani and Ortega have narrated. This audiobook and its written version are a tribute to love and a gift to the listener/reader just when we need it most.

questionable

I have to admit,this book was riveting. Two stories intertwined to collide beautifully. Except, some of the author's data and accuracy were questionable so as to make me very doubtful and therefore kind of ruined it for me, things about our legal system and immigration. I was believing it until the main character got the flu in Berkeley in August. This may seem trivial, but the chances of that happening are about 0%. I am a factual reader and so this made me doubt the rest of the plausibility of her story.

Lovely Book

Very slow start but keep with it as it gets better could not put it down the end was sad I wanted it to keep going.

Timely Story

The story was quite interesting and timely, dealing with the separation of a mother and child due to the mother's immigration status and a couple hoping to adopt the child. This story alarmed me and led me to read more on the current government policies on immigration. I think the plot was good and liked the way the story unfolded, alternating between the tale of the mother and that of the couple. The two narrators were excellent.

That said, I didn't care for some of the actual writing. I felt the author went down too many rabbit holes, so I set the speed on 1.25 and even 1.5 sometimes just to get past these passages and continue with the main story-line. I also felt some of the descriptions of the feelings of the characters were obvious and unnecessary. It would not have hurt this story to have been edited down a few hours. Hence the "Pretty good" and not "great" rating.