Jeanine Cummins’s American Dirt is a gripping fictional account of the harrowing lives of those who are forced into a life of migrancy as the result of violence and corruption in their homelands. Told in third-person narrative, the novel captures the journey of Lydia Quixano Perez and her son, Luca, as they flee the wrath of the Mexican cartel which has infiltrated their lives in Acapulco. In the work, Cummins tackles the weighty topic of immigration, and in doing so captures themes of motherhood, trauma, resiliency, and hope.
