First published 2019
A mother and father pack their two children into a car for a summer drive from New York to Arizona. Their destination is Apacheria, the former Apache homeland. The ten-year-old boy asks why they're going there. His father tells him the Apaches were the last of something. As they travel through Virginia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Texas, the family plays games and sings to music. Radio reports describe thousands of children crossing the southwestern border, many getting detained or lost in the desert. The parents' marriage shows growing cracks that the children sense beneath them. The journey leads them into the desert landscape and into their own minds. The story unfolds through multiple voices, combining text, sound, and image. It explores how families document their lives and remember what matters most to them.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Apacheria, Arizona, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia
Period: 21st-century
400 pages · ebook · HarperCollins