American Abductions - Mauro Javier Cardenas

After her father is abducted by immigration officials before her eyes and deported to Colombia, \nAda and her sister are left in an America as all-seeing as it is hostile; torrential and dreamlike, \nMauro Javier Cárdenas' story unfurls into a layered, poignant, and unflinching portrait of racism \nand xenophobia. \nAmerican Abductions opens in a near-future America whose omnipresence of data-harvesting \nand algorithms has enabled the mass incarceration, and deportation of Latin \nAmericans--regardless of citizenship. Now adults, Ava remains in San Francisco while Eva has \njoined their father in Colombia, tending him in his ailing health. When his condition worsens, \nEva asks Ada to come see them: a nearly impossible feat, given America's restrictions on Latin \nAmericans' movements. Ada, terribly alone, must come to terms with the violence of American \nsociety and the grief of lost community. Exploring the role of technology, mass society, and \nstorytelling, the novel delves into the ties, memories, and lines of code binding communities \ntogether.\n \nMauro Javier Cárdenas has been lauded as one of the most promising Latin American authors, \nand in American Abductions, his deconstruction of American society and state proves his \ngeneration-defining acuity and storytelling. The book's polyphony of mysticism, technology, \nand philosophy calls to mind the perceptive dystopian visions of Philip K. Dick and the visionary \nstylistic fluidity of Samuel Delaney. The result is a sharp and metaphysical cautionary narrative, \na masterwork examining the place of Latin Americans in an America that is always changing.\n