Oscar Martinez, trans. by Daniela Maria Ugaz and John B. Washington
RaveThe Independent (UK)Martinez – who faces untold dangers as a reporter – gets beyond these numbers with skill and subtlety. He tells the stories of individuals with names, ages, faces, families, for whom migration is a matter of life and death ... Tales of death and survival on \'La Bestia\' (The Beast) – the infamous freight train which carries thousands of migrants towards \'El Norte\', on which Martinez travelled eight times for this book – are only part of his fluid account ... Martinez reiterates that for migrants, knowledge is key. So many that he meets seem to have little idea what awaits them on their journey, perhaps because so few accounts like Martinez’s exist.
