Infinite Country

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel is a book everyone should read. 

Talia, who is sixteen, has a week to get across Colombia back to Bogota to catch a plane to the United States. Her mother is finally sending for her to join her siblings in New Jersey.

Unfortunately, in order to get there, Talia has to break out of a school/prison and, with no money, get about one hundred miles.

Talia born in the US, but raised in Bogota by her grandmother and father. Her parents had traveled to the US for work and stayed past their visas - living in fear, taking underpaying and dangerous jobs with no protection from their employers. 

When her father was deported back to Columbia, there was no way for him to return to the US. Two of his three children born in a country he cannot visit, the third of who cannot come see him in Colombia.

Engel has written a family epic in a small book with a giant punch. This is a beautiful, heart-wrenching story of many families. Buy a copy today.

Engel, Patricia. (2021). Infinite Country. New York: Avid Reader Press.

The Vanishing Half

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett is the tale of twin sisters and their diverging lives. 

Stella and Desiree Vignes were born in Mallard, Louisiana in the 1950s. Most people born there stay their whole lives. 

At sixteen, their mother takes them out of school so they can help support the family. That is when they leave and move to New Orleans. From there they separate, creating very different lives for themselves.

Ten years later, Desiree moves back home, bringing her daughter Jude. She has not seen or herd from Stella in years. Desiree hires someone to track Stella to find out what happened to her.

Spanning forty years and the width of the United States, Bennett explores the history of passing, racism and identity in this beautiful family epic. 

Bennett, Brit (2020). The Vanishing Half. New York: Riverhead Books.

The Russian Cage (Gunnie Rose #3)

The Russian Cage by Charlaine Harris is her alternate history series featuring Gunnie Rose. Lizbeth Rose is a guard who, with a crew, guides people through the wilds of an altered United States.

Lizbeth gets a letter from her half-sister in the Holy Russian Empire (what we call California and Oregon) - a sister she only discovered months ago. On a second reading she notices a code.

Eli has been arrested. Eli's brother, a classmate of her sister, has been to see him but cannot find out why he is in jail. 

Lizbeth packs a bag, digs up some money and hops a train west. Once arriving in San Diego, she has to attempt to blend in - including not carrying her guns. 

Harris has created a wonderful genreblend - alternate history magic, western - which should surprise no one who is familiar with her Southern Vampire (aka True Blood) series. She is a great writer with an extra amount of imagination! I love this series!

Harris, Charlaine. (2021). The Russian Cage. New York: Saga Press.

The King's Justice (Maggie Hope #9)

The King's Justice by Susan Elia MacNeal is her ninth book in the Maggie Hope series - an historical mystery / espionage series lead by a wonderful character. 

Maggie has had many jobs since she moved to London - from secretary to Mr. Churchill, to espionage work, to helping Scotland Yard catch a sequential murderer. Now she just wants a break. 

Of course her idea of a break from that previous work is to join a bomb disposal unit. Her role being defusing the UXBs before they can explode. 

The man from Scotland Yard has other ideas. He wants her help, and to get her away from the UXBs. She can choose her case - either a new sequential killer who is putting human bones in suitcases in the Thames, or the theft of a Stradivarius violin. 

MacNeal's series is one of my favorite in any genre. This and Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs are equally the best of historical mystery.  

MacNeal, Susan Elia. (2020). The King's Justice. New York: Bantam Books.

The Gods of Tango

The Gods of Tango by Carolina De Robertis is a beautiful story of survival during the birth of tango in Argentina.

1913. Seventeen year old Leda is about to leave Italy to marry Dante who already migrated to Argentina. He went ahead to get settled before sending for her. Leda is taking her father's violin - it has been passed from father to son for generations. Though Leda knows how to play, tradition is tradition.

When Leda arrives in Buenos Aires, she is met by a stranger who tells her that her husband Dante has died. Money has been raised for her to have a room in their tenement for a couple of months while she decides what to do next.

Her family wants her to come home to Italy. There are few jobs open to a single woman. She can join the others in her building sewing, but it will only earn her enough to share a room with a bunch of other women. A man who comes to play the violin one afternoon tells her that women cannot play - tango is played in places unsafe for a woman.

But tango calls to Leda. And her husband's clothing is in a closet in her room. Could she pass as a man to play the violin? She would have to give up everyone she knows in Buenos Aires and move away in the night, cutting off her long hair...

De Robertis's story following the growth of the tango. From it African roots, added to by other groups of migrants to Argentina - German, Italian - and influence by Paris in a cyclical loop. The music, the dancing, the characters, the whole book is a love story to both the tango and to finding you place no matter your initial circumstances. 

De Robertis, Carolina. (2015). The Gods of Tango. New York: Vintage Books.