Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

 

Infinite Country

by Patricia Engel

Fifteen-year-old Talia escapes from the prison school she's confined to after having harmed a man who committed a horrible act in Bogotá, Colombia. She fleas to go back home to her father, Mauro, who intends to get her on a plane back to the United States where she was born to reunite with her undocumented mother (Elena), sister (Karina), and US-born brother (Nando). Along her journey she is helped by two men, one who hopes to get something from her and one who just wants to see her safely to her destination.

Alongside this storyline is a retelling of how Mauro and Elena met, started a family, moved to the US, overstayed their visas, and how Mauro got arrested and deported after a fight. Talia was sent to live with him. Those left behind in the states lived in various cities, always wary of detection with the threat of separation and deportation for Elena and Karina.

Elena longs for Bogotá, where things were familiar, she understood the language, and she didn't have to worry as much. Karina and Nando are Americanized teenagers who feel disconnected from their heritage, their father and sister, though they are often Othered. Talia longs for what she's missing in the US, buut doesn't want to leave her father behind, alone. Mauro misses his family and wants nothing more than to reunite with them.

Infinite Country is about the reality of being undocumented in the US, particularly under the Trump administration. The fear, uncertainty, silence, and difficult choices, as well as the feeling of being unsafe and disconnected (unrooted) in a place where tough decisions have to be made in order to have a better life for yourself and your family. It is a book about connection and dislocation, longing for home and pride in your country, about separation and reunification, and the bonds of family across imaginary lines. The book states that love is an infinite country where there are no borders.

This book was beautiful and intelligently written. A little heavy handed toward the end in order to drive its point home, but it tackles such relevant issues to our country and the immigrant condition today that I can easily forgive that. It doesn't take away from the elegant prose and the deep understanding we gain of these characters. Their choices are difficult and I could not help but think about what I would do in the same situations. Would I be able to deal with them and make those hard choices? 

Infinite Country was a 5-star read for me. I couldn't put the book down. It was a book that used Spanish in a natural way, unexplained for the white reader, which drove the points of the story home.