292: Javier Zamora’s SOLITO - April 2025 Book Club

In this month’s Book Club episode, we’re discussing Solito by Javier Zamora, a powerful memoir that chronicles his journey as a nine year old traveling alone from El Salvador to the United States. With vivid detail and emotional clarity, Zamora recounts the two-month trek that took him across borders, through deserts, and into the hands of strangers—some kind, some dangerous—all with the hope of reuniting with his parents on the other side.

We discuss the emotional weight of Zamora’s story, the beauty of his writing, and the way his experience speaks to the resilience of young people navigating unimaginably difficult circumstances. Tune in to hear our thoughts, a few favorite quotes, and recommendations for other powerful reads to pair with this unforgettable memoir.

Bookish Check-in

Ashley - Renée Watson’s All the Blues in the Sky (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)

Jen - TJ Klune’s The Bones Beneath My Skin (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)

Our Book Club Pick

Javier Zamora’s Solito (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)

Our Pairings

Ashley - Valeria Luiselli's Lost Children Archive (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)

Jen - Jonathan Blitzer’s Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)

Also mentioned: Celeste Ng's Our Missing Hearts (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)

You can check out our book club episode discussing this one!

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Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Unabridged Podcast. I'm Ashley, and this is Jen. Join us for bookish episodes and check out our website unabridgedpod.com where you can find lots of new bookish content to grow your TBR. Sign up for our newsletter to find out more about online book discussions and upcoming events.

[00:00:18] Find us on Patreon for extra unabridged content. Join us on Instagram and Facebook at unabridged pod and message us there or see our website to get plugged into the unabridged community. You want opinions about books? We've got 'em.

[00:00:34] Ashley: Hi, and welcome to Unabridged.

[00:00:36] This is episode 2 92. Today we're discussing Javier Zamora's Solito, which is our April 2025 book club. Before we get started with Solito today, we wanted to share our Bookish Check-in Jen, what are you reading?

[00:00:51] Jen: So I technically just finished this, but I want to highlight it anyway. It is TJ Klune's The Bones Beneath My Skin and I just love everything he writes, so I just have become even more committed to going into his backlist. Initially I thought this was a new release, but then at the end he has a note that explains the publishing journey and the publisher he was working with before thought this book was too weird and did not want to publish it.

[00:01:20] And so he self-published it in 2018, I believe, and now he's working with Tour. And so they, it's a re-release. Anyway, I thought that was interesting. So, yeah, 'cause anyway, I feel like his books are all quirky and

[00:01:36] I don't know that this is more quirky, but anyway, so. This begins with a character named Nate Cartwright, who is a journalist who has been very successful in Washington DC but has undergone some sort of career malfunction that we don't learn about until later.

[00:01:57] He also experienced personal tragedy. So he had been estranged from his parents, but he learns that his father murdered his mother and then shot himself. And of course he has very complex feelings about that. He also finds out from his brother, from whom he is also estranged, that he inherited his dad's truck and his family's cabin deep in the mountains.

[00:02:22] And that is it. So he decides because his career has disintegrated, that he just needs some time alone. He's going to go live in this cabin for a while and figure out how he feels about life. When he arrives, he notices signs... Like no one's been there for years, but he notices signs that seem like someone's been living there.

[00:02:42] And very quickly, he confronts a very large man. Later we find out his name is Alex. And a little girl whose name is Artemis Darth Vader. So there's something weird going on there. Eventually they reach this sort of prickly truce and they're staying there and what strikes him immediately... So he passes out very early on in their confrontation because he's being confronted by a gun and he hasn't had a lot to eat. So he passes out. Alex, he knows, has a bullet wound and he's also having trouble, and yet somehow they managed to get back into the cabin and he doesn't know how that happened.

[00:03:30] And then Artemis is checking on Alex's bullet wound, and Nate notices that it is healing very quickly. And Artemis is acting very strangely, like she's never had bacon before and is very excited about the possibility of having bacon one morning. So they're just all these little quirky things, and I don't want to spoil anything.

[00:03:53] I had suspected the ultimate answer, but it takes a little while before that's confirmed. So I do think that's part of the joy of it. But I think you also see three people who have a great reason to distrust others and yet they come to find each other and build a sort of family among the three of them, which is one of the things that I think Klune does best.

[00:04:15] So I'll just say that and I'll leave it there, but I do highly recommend it. So that is TJ Klune's The Bones Beneath My Skin.

[00:04:24] Ashley: Oh, Jen, I saw you shared that on social, I guess, and I was like, oh, I hadn't even heard of that one. And yay. There are more things to read by Klune and that sounds awesome, so I'll have to check it

[00:04:35] Jen: out.

[00:04:35] I think you would love it. It's really good. What are you reading, Ashley?

[00:04:40] Ashley: So one of the ones I just started is Renee Watson's All the Blues in the Sky. I am listening to this one thanks to LiRo fm and it came out very recently, February. It came out in February of 2025. It is middle grade, and I have only listened to a little bit of it so far, but it is a really captivating story and

[00:05:02] super well done. I anticipate loving it. It is about Sage and she just turned 13 and on her 13th birthday, her best friend was killed by a car was hit as she was walking and she was hit, and so it is very much about Sage's grief, and

[00:05:25] a lot of it right at the beginning is about a grief group that she has been placed in. There are five of them in the group, and it's about trying to process, so it's only about a month after this event has occurred. And so it's just really about trying to navigate

[00:05:45] I mean this horrific event, and the fact that you could lose someone and that you could lose them instantly, and how precarious and fragile life is, it's a lot about that. And so it is just beautifully done so far. And I know it sounds super heavy. It is moving, but I feel like it is written in a way that is accessible.

[00:06:05] And I love that Watson is talking about grief and talking about hard things in a way that is accessible to, I mean, it's appropriate for a middle grade audience, and I just think it's really important. I think we don't do that enough in our society. I think a lot of times we try to just avoid the hard things, especially things like death and especially things like death of someone who is not like, you know, an older person who's dying in their sleep.

[00:06:32] And so, I think that it's an important story and like I said, it is moving, but I feel like considering just how heavy the topic is, I mean, from the synopsis I'm sharing here, I think she does a great job of inviting the reader in and the people in the group, we learned right away who they lost and how they lost them.

[00:06:51] I think that is really powerful also, because like Sage feels this judgment toward people who had like a softer or more like more warning for their loved one that they lost, like she knows that it's unfair, but she feels this like judgment toward them and, is kind of resentful of the fact that like they knew that this was coming.

[00:07:11] Whereas there were other people in the group who also lost someone abruptly, someone was killed by a police officer. Someone died of a heart attack. And then there were a couple who were sick and one of them was a young person who was sick. But again, they knew. And then the other was like an older person who passed away gently in their sleep, you know?

[00:07:29] And so I just think we see what she's learning, and I love how Watson is showing outright those very complicated feelings that people have, and how those feelings are valid. I think that she just is like normalizing this spectrum of feelings and how hard it is to carry on, but also how it's not just sadness that you feel.

[00:07:49] It's like all these other feelings too. And so far I'm really loving it as Bonnie Turpen, who is narrating the audio and so it just pulls you right in. Really well done. And like I said, it just started, but I am really, I think she's done a really great job with this. So it's Renee Watson's All the Blues in the Sky.

[00:08:08] Jen: Yeah, I got that A LC as well. I think it looks so good. I have not started yet, but it's definitely what I want to get to soon. I love Bonnie Turpen so much and the story sounds powerful. Watson's always so good as well, so that's just a match made in heaven.

[00:08:21] Ashley: Yeah, exactly. Well, today we want to discuss Javier Zamora's memoir Solito. And before we get started, I'm just going to share the publisher's synopsis. Javier Zamora's adventure is a 3000 mile journey from his small town in El Salvador through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the US border. He will leave behind his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with a mother who left four years ago, and a father he barely remembers Traveling

[00:08:53] alone amid a group of strangers and a coyote hired to lead them to safety, Javier expects his trip to last two short weeks At nine years old, all Javier can imagine is rushing into his parents' arms, snuggling in bed between them and living under the same roof again.

[00:09:09] He cannot foresee the perilous boat trips. Relentless desert treks. Pointed guns. Arrests and deceptions that await him, nor can he know that those two weeks will expand into two life altering months alongside fellow migrants who will come to encircle him like an unexpected family.

[00:09:27] And I think, yeah, as the synopsis indicates, Solito, if you have read, you know, really focuses on accounting exactly what that immigration process was like for Javier. And so we really just see firsthand exactly what he went through and how he crosses the borders and like what all that looks like. And so I'm sure we'll get into that.

[00:09:52] Let's start with overall impressions. Jen, what's your overall impression of this one?

[00:09:56] Jen: So this was my second time reading the book. The first time I listened to the audio, and the second time I did a bit of audio, but primarily read the print and. I actually think I prefer the print, but regardless, I think overall, I think anytime an author can zoom in on the effects of a larger policy or a larger issue on an individual, it's such a powerful way to think about how large decisions impact.

[00:10:34] People on just in their day-to-day lives. And I think Zamora does such a fantastic job showing from this really zoomed in perspective on a 9-year-old, the lack of understanding of everything that is placing him in this position, but also the way that it's affecting him and his sense of security, his.

[00:10:58] Connection to his family. I think he just does such a beautiful job portraying the hopes, you know, this desire to be back with his parents, even though he is leaving his beloved grandparents and his aunt, he just wants to be with his mom and dad. And I cannot imagine... I just kept picturing my kids, and I cannot imagine as a parent feeling like this was the safest option,

[00:11:26] and having to make that horrific decision for your own child and knowing that he's out there, that you're trusting someone who yes, you know, but not well. And then, you know, the course of his journey, he ends up switching to different coyotes and, and that is so traumatizing. So all of that, I think, does such a good job of explaining the plight, but then you also have these moments of great beauty.

[00:11:51] And human connection. And you see the way that other people can sacrifice for him. And so I do think there's this moving heart of like the compassion that people can have for each other and the difference that can make for someone that is a hopeful note, even though the story as a whole is horrifying.

[00:12:11] So yeah, I don't know how coherent that was. I have a lot of thoughts about this book. But yeah, I think that's overall how I felt about it. How about you, Ashley?

[00:12:21] Ashley: Yeah, I think you touched on a lot of the things that are so impactful. One of the things I think is so important about telling these stories, and I think Zamora does this so well, is shows how far people will go to have a better life. And I think a lot of times exactly what you said, Jen, when we talk about social issues, political issues, we often lose touch with the actual people at the heart of the issue.

[00:12:47] And I think that what Solito does so well is show that even with... First of all, he is nine, and his ability to make any kind of decision is virtually non-existent. So. There's a lot of like, I think just remembering that a lot of people are making exactly what you said, Jen. I mean he, so at the time of his crossing, like my children are eight and 10 right now, so he's right in the middle of their ages, and I could not stop seeing my own children in that.

[00:13:22] And I think that's what's so powerful about the book is I think it invites us to remember that when people are migrating, there is a reason. And that that reason is so profound that they're willing to do anything in order to bring it about, and exactly what you said, Jen, like for him, like he is excited about seeing his parents, but like

[00:13:46] he hardly remembers his mom and he doesn't remember his dad at all. And so he is making this unthinkable journey. He had never... I mean, I think in the beginning it's so powerful where he immediately on the bus is farther than he has ever traveled in his life. So instantly at the very beginning of the trip, he already is traveling beyond

[00:14:08] the circle of his world, and then all of a sudden he's going thousands and thousands of miles amid unthinkable obstacles. And I just think that is, that is what is happening. That's what's happening right now while we're recording. That is what is happening all the time, every day. And Zamora does not get into all the legal parts, the pieces of it.

[00:14:30] But what we know contextually is that for a lot of people, there is not another way. Like if you, if he wants to be back with his parents, there is not another path that's going to get him back to his parents. And so I think that what we see is that the adults know, I mean, there, it's unbelievably expensive.

[00:14:47] It's unbelievably complicated. It has a very high risk on, on all fronts, right? Risk of getting caught, risk of getting deported. And again, all these terms are terms he's never even heard of and he's trying to figure all that out. And then risk of dying in the desert. I mean, I think we really see with that one situation, how close

[00:15:06] they are to not making it, to not finding a place to even get water to keep them alive. And so I just think it's so powerfully told, and it's such an important story because exactly what you said, Jen, it humanizes what is often seen as an issue where we lose touch of the people who are involved in what's happening.

[00:15:28] Jen: Yeah. That moment with the last group when he and Carla are asking each other if the group has gotten smaller and there's just this feeling like they are probably losing people who have died in the desert, but because of his perspective, we never know, because he doesn't know and, and just that is so frightening that it so easily could have ended differently for him.

[00:15:55] yeah. I'm glad you highlighted that.

[00:15:58] Ashley: Yeah, I think that the, you know, so Chino and Patricia know how close they are. Like we know that they know, like we as adults reading this know that they know how precarious their situation is. But absolutely, Javier, I mean, when they leave that coyote, who is like, just leave me. And who's like, you must keep going.

[00:16:22] I mean, the likelihood that that man survived is almost non-existent. And yet for Javier at nine, even experiencing all these really hard things, it's still almost impossible for him to really fathom because his perspective on the world is really limited. And whereas like we know, you know, the likelihood if he was that dehydrated, he's that helpless and they left him in the middle of the desert.

[00:16:44] I mean, what's the likelihood he survived? You know? And so I think absolutely, like we are carrying both the experience that he's having and the reality that he sees, but then also the larger context of what we know about the circumstances. And then, I mean, the timing, right? I mean the, this is in 99, so you know, you're not like

[00:17:02] dropping a pen on a map, you don't have any kind of connection to people. I mean, so I think that that part really was resonant also. And I think that that is something that if you're reading this as a young adult, it is probably hard to a certain extent to imagine how different that time period was. And not that it's not extremely dangerous now, because of course it is, but the ability to connect is different than it was.

[00:17:25] 25 years ago, 26 years ago. And so I think that, you know, that really hit me hard, too, of just that he, the way that he completely loses touch with every single person he knows in the world, and that that goes on for months. I mean, it's just terrifying. And again, it shows how when people are taken away from their family and their support system, like what that looks like.

[00:17:47] And, and yet, like you said, Jen, I think that there is a lot of hope also in the book. And I think that the relationship that he develops with Carla and Patricia and Chino is so beautiful and speaks to the heart of human... you know, humanity at its best, right? That we can care for each other and we can, we are willing, people can be willing to risk their lives for someone they do not know in order to protect them.

[00:18:15] All of that is really beautiful and hopeful amid really hard circumstances.

[00:18:21] Jen: So, Jen, what's something specific that worked for you?

[00:18:23] So obviously we know when we start the book that he made it to the end, but through the memoir, he does not include a lot of reflection from later. He very much stays in that time and place and that identity of him as being nine and zooming in only on what he understands in these moments. And I think there could have been benefits to some inserted reflections, but I also think there's such power in, we are in nine-year-old Javier's mind and we know what he knows.

[00:19:04] And yeah, like you pointed out, there are times that we can infer, or because we're adults, we understand some of the things going on around him that he doesn't, but I just think that was such a masterful decision to just tell the story purely as 9-year-old Javier, and we get some of that reflection at the end.

[00:19:25] I, I just think that was really powerful because we don't have those moments of relief from outside of it. So again, we know he makes it. But we don't know about anyone else on who's with him. We don't, we don't know from a later perspective what happens. And so we have to feel that peril right alongside him, and that lack of understanding and that lack of just not knowing what's coming next, you know, when they're in, when they're in jail, or when they're being held, or when, you know, the.

[00:20:00] They are, they're waiting interminably for the next step of their journey and they have no idea if their permission to be in that country is going to run out. Like we're, we're waiting for those things alongside him. So I think that was a really, on a writing level, I think that was a great decision.

[00:20:15] Ashley: Yeah. Yeah, I thought a lot about that too, that he. invites us in to exactly what a child feels and thinks in this situation. And I, I think that also speaks to the humanity piece, right? That there are kids all the time, every day getting separated from their parents who are still trying because it is better than the alternative.

[00:20:44] And I think remembering that is just really important.

[00:20:47] Jen: Yeah. What's something that worked for you, Ashley?

[00:20:50] Ashley: So I think something I really love that I already mentioned is just the way that he develops a second family. I think that all of that is so beautifully told and is really moving, and I think given the circumstances that are just so hard, that it is remarkable. It's amazing that Patricia and Chino

[00:21:16] care for him and take him in and do everything they can to stay with him and to protect him. And I just, I mean, when Chino is carrying Carla and him through the desert and taking turns, I mean, I kept thinking about how, again, he's literally risking his life because he is making his own journey that much more arduous in order to carry them. And they're not small. I mean, again, I kept thinking about my own children and how long I might be able to carry them without collapsing. And I think that just recognizing that people are capable of so much good and so much kindness is amazing. And then contrasting that with La Migra and the way that things happen at the border and some of the horrific circumstances that they

[00:22:05] find themselves in. And again, that idea that just in a lot of those instances where things where they're treated so poorly, that people have lost touch of the fact that we're all human and that we have to care for each other. And it feels like a lot of these systems only work by making all of that, by dehumanizing that, that is what keeps the system running.

[00:22:28] And so getting at the core of kindness and compassion for other people and remember, and I mean even the coyote who are supposed to be helping them, like some of them are so cruel and so merciless. And again, it's because it is a very hard job. It is a very hard circumstance and they're risking their lives.

[00:22:50] And so, you know, it goes back to like, how do these things endure? And a lot of it relies on forgetting those core pieces of what binds us all together as people. And I think that he just portrays that so beautifully. And so I love seeing them as such a strong contrast to the other hard circumstances that he encounters and cruelty that he encounters.

[00:23:13] Jen: Yeah. Yeah. I thought that was really brilliantly portrayed. And I think there's, you know, Marcello is there and Javier's grandfather has made a deal with him because they're from the same town, right? And he gives him some money. And yet that's only ever an obligation, and Chino and Patricia don't get anything out of helping him.

[00:23:36] There's no benefit. There's no sense of obligation. It is just something that they do out of pure kindness and compassion and yeah, so it is really a beautiful thing.

[00:23:46] Ashley: Yeah. Well, there are many things to discuss, but we are going to share some quotes that we found powerful. Jen, what's a quote that stood out to you?

[00:23:56] Jen: So this is. A bit of a funny one, but it's, "the tree is so skinny, it provides no shade. Some branches have tiny pebble sized leaves. We can hardly see. Skinny green, smooth tree. I whisper SGS tree for short. I like naming these weird looking bushes and trees. I'm an explorer. Javier Cousteau. I like looking up at the sky while lying down in the dirt.

[00:24:15] The tree branches look like squid’s tentacles reaching for the sky," and there are moments in the book that just so capture his 9-year-old qualities. And I think this is one where you see even in the midst of. Some horrible situations. Again, as we've been emphasizing, he's still a kid, and he still has a big imagination and he's still making sense of the world and playing these little games with himself just to try to comprehend and take some ownership of what's around him.

[00:24:52] And so every time there was one of those moments, like there's the little lizard that he names when he's face down because the police officers have stopped the bus. It's horrific. And yet he finds this little lizard that he's personifying because he needs that sort of connection to something to take him out of himself and distract himself from what's actually going on.

[00:25:16] So it both made me love him, love this kid, and who he is, and the things that interest him, but also just have even more. I keep coming back to the word compassion or empathy with the need to not think about your whole situation right now and just take a minute to see a cool tree and compare it to something in the ocean and to think about exploring and yeah, I really love that.

[00:25:42] Ashley: Yeah, I thought all of that was really powerful, both because of the things you were sharing, Jen, and also because it shows him as the artist that he is, you know, like, and so I love that too, that it shows him as this creative soul that we see later as him as a poet and a writer. And we see that there in his 9-year-old self and the way that that creativity is already such an integral part of his being, and also the way his worldview is widening.

[00:26:10] I mean, it goes back to if these circumstances weren't so horrific, it would be so cool that he is crossing this border and he is getting to see all these new things that are so different from what he's seen before. And so, I mean, I love that, but I think that part of it is that impact of it could be, the circumstances could be so different in a different context, and yet here we see it as a child trying hard not to break and that that is what is

[00:26:39] keeping him going and helping him carry on is using his imagination as a way to shield himself from some of the harder realities that he's facing.

[00:26:49] Jen: Yeah. What quote do you want to share, Ashley?

[00:26:51] Ashley: I chose one from the end. I mean, I think the author's note, this is one where the author's note is really powerful. Like Jen said in the story itself, he does a really good job of keeping the microscope focused on his own experience at nine and there really is not any commentary about his life as an adult or his life in the us. And so this is one where I think that the only time we see the trauma that he recognizes that he suffered, the questions he has about the choices that his family made, like we only see that in the author's note. So I did choose to quote from that and he says, "I never found out what happened to Chile,

[00:27:28] or to any of the countless others who were with me, I fear they died in the Snore Desert. This book is for them and for every immigrant who has crossed, who has tried to, who is crossing right now and who will keep trying." And going back to what I said earlier, that I think what is so powerful is this is both a moment in time and also

[00:27:50] a commentary about the experience at any time for all the people who are trying to do exactly this thing in an issue that has continued to be unresolved, continued to be contentious, continued to question.Another thing that I loved is, and I could have chosen a quote for this, is the way that we see how arbitrary the borders are.

[00:28:13] And I think that's really powerful is, you know, there are moments where like they can, there is no line, right? There's no fence, there's no line. They don't even have these markers. And I think it just reminds us of how borderlands are such amorphous things, and these lines have been arbitrarily constructed and yet they shape so much of people's experience.

[00:28:32] And so I think we see that a lot here too. But again, I just think that such an important book. Both showcasing something that is very, very specific to one person's experience and also that speaking to the broadness of a spectrum of things that are important to consider when we talk about these issues that get flattened in the political landscape.

[00:28:54] Jen: Yeah. Yeah, that's so well said. And just thinking about those moments of found family and that the found family disintegrates after, I still wanted to Google and I still need to do it, if anyone did find Javier Zamora as a result of this book, and I so hope that they did, because I just think being able to celebrate that journey that they made together and the way they were there for each other, and you can tell he's so grateful and then now he fully recognizes what they did for him.

[00:29:23] I think it would be… Yeah. I hope they had some sort of reunion.

[00:29:27] Ashley: Yeah, me too. And yeah, I think that's part of what is so heartbreaking about it is, and again, real, I mean, you know, he's just telling his story, but I think how heartbreaking when he starts to realize Yeah, right there at the end where he, he realizes that they're going so far away to the whole, you know, he, he can't even fathom how far they're going to be from where he wa where they are and where he's going. And he is leaving them to go to people that he hardly knows, and I just think like, oh, that is so hard, and we really don't see that part. You know, we really only see his parents as the shadows that they are when they appear to pick him up. I thought, oh, that was just really powerful because all of this suffering is for an imagined future

[00:30:15] that he has no evidence will play out in any kind of meaningful way. And so I just think, yeah, we see a lot of that. and how hard that he would have to say bye to them. And I do hope so, too. And same Jen, I haven't Googled it, but I was curious. We wanted to share pairings, so these are just books that if you really enjoyed Solito, these are other books we would recommend. Jen, what's your pairing?

[00:30:39] Jen: So my pairing is a work of journalism. This is Jonathan Blitzer's Everyone Who has Gone Is here: the United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis, and Blitzer here investigates decades of what created situations like the ones Javier is in. So it looks at these different countries in Central America and the forces that have made living there impossible and make.

[00:31:09] Javier's parents make decisions like the ones that they make for him and for themselves, and. It. I thought it would be an interesting pairing for this because of course this one, as we've talked about, is so zoomed in on this one person's experience, and what Blitzer does is give a much more global perspective on the forces that have done it.

[00:31:28] The way the United States policy contributed to a lot of the crises in Central America, which then make it necessary for people to come to the United States to find a better life, which now, we are closing down those opportunities even more. And so just the way that all of those cyclical forces have conspired to make life unlivable for so many people.

[00:31:51] So even though it is a global perspective, Blitzer does focus in on a few people who embody different experiences. So he chooses sort of representative stories. So you get both. The policy overview and the historical overview, but also you see how those things affect individuals. So there is still it...

[00:32:13] it's very readable. I listened to this one on audio as well, and I did not want to stop listening because it is so compellingly told. But I do think that historical perspective is an important one to consider as well. So I think it would be, yeah, I kept seeing, oh. Javier's dad left at this time, and this is what was going on, and this is why he had to leave and, and even like Chino's tattoos and the way that the... policies around gangs.

[00:32:44] Yeah. All of that was informed by these different forces. Yeah. It's very complex to explore, but I think Blitzer does a remarkable job. It's been winning some awards and I think they're well, well deserved.

[00:32:57] Ashley: Yeah, I want to read that one, Jen. And I think if, yeah, I think it's such an important thing for us to educate ourselves about because I think that it is something, again, that gets flattened. I think that people tend to have opinions that are often not grounded in historical truths. I mean, I mean for all of us, it's just something that we're not educated about it as America, I'm speaking, all of us as Americans, people who are in America is not something that we study.

[00:33:26] And so because of that, I think that a lot of what information we're getting is current news, but the current news is often not explaining or contextualizing the crises that have happened and how those have come about and why people need to escape situations that are really, really horrific, that are often unlivable, like, you know, that their life is at stake.

[00:33:50] And so, and then figuring out like, what does that look like and how, how is that possible? And, again, Zamora does not speak to that part particularly. We see a little bit of, a little bit of information, but for the most part is really focused again on him as a 9-year-old who would not know all of those things.

[00:34:10] But what we know as people, and it sounds like what the book explores is just how those things came to be, and then also what avenues do and do not exist for people given the circumstances that are now real.

[00:34:22] Jen: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I think you should read it. I think you would really appreciate it. Yeah. What, what's your pairing?

[00:34:31] Ashley: So one I just wanted to mention is Celeste Ng's Our Missing Hearts. And the reason I wanted to mention that one is just we, we read that as a book club, but it kept coming to my mind because I think in that book we feel a lot of judgment. We, the reader, the reader feels a lot of judgment toward the mom, at least early on in the book because again, child's perspective and looking toward

[00:34:55] this mom who it seems has totally abandoned the child, and yet as the book unfolds, we come to understand that she did that to save her child. And so I think the reason it kept coming to my mind is just that, I think this is another example where seeing a child's perspective shows, there were just so many times that I thought how, what privilege I carry that I have never had to make those choices for my family.

[00:35:20] And I think that is what Solito does really well, is just says, this is how it is for some people that they would send their child into the desert with no one in order to get them to a better life. And I think that is a hard… like that is a hard truth, and it is a truth that we need to be able to look at as readers.

[00:35:43] And again, and I think Our Missing Hearts, again, I mean it's fiction, but I think it is something that is very salient to right now and it is looking toward. Structures that get put in place that then result in these kind of catastrophic things for people. And so, you know that, I didn't really want to say that one as my pairing 'cause we've read it before and because it is a very different book.

[00:36:07] But I did want to mention it here because I think we, it's easy for us sometimes, when we are in our comfortable houses, in our comfortable lives, reading our comfortable books to have some feelings about what people do and don't do with their lives or for their children. And I think Solito and Our Missing Hearts both really shakes that and makes us think hard about that.

[00:36:27] And I think that's important. I think that's a. Important place of discomfort to be. Anyway, the... So sorry to cheat. That was more than I meant to say about that one. but I also, my, my actual pairing that I wanted to share is Valeria Elle's Lost Children Archive. This is a novel, it very much reads like a memoir, but it is in fact like, it feels like non-fiction, but it is, fiction and it is about a family;

[00:36:50] they're heading to Apache land. They really want to tell the story of the people there. And both of the adults have different specialties, but they're both... they're talents and their professions that have to do with archiving.

[00:37:06] Hence the title about The Lost Children Archive. Their goal is to archive society and tell the story of society. And so this is a complex book. It's not an easy thing to explain, but I think I found it really fascinating about the archival of not just stories, but like sounds and places, and how we preserve a culture.

[00:37:27] So there's that. That's one thing that's happening is the family is traveling west, they're traveling across to get to this Apache territory where they're, the goal is to like tell this story and archive this community. But then the other thing that is happening is that we're getting this other story about children who are crossing the border.

[00:37:50] And it really explores what that looks like. And we see the kid, I mean, it's very much about the immigration crisis that's happening, and these thousands of children who are trying to cross into the US, and they're getting detained or lost in the desert or both. And so I think that, and it's. Part of the story is, so it's, it's different things that are happening within a pretty complex narrative.

[00:38:16] But I think part of what's happening is how do we as people who are not the ones in the center of the crisis, how do we interact with that crisis? And in this one, like they're the two adults, there's differences and the way that they respond to this crisis, and maybe their ability to do something about it, and that causes some rifts between them.

[00:38:37] And so I think it just is a really powerful look. But there are some... Similar to Solito in the sense that there are these scenes that are just really vivid and that I think do a really good job of narrowing down and looking at specific people in a specific circumstance and then what that situation is like for them.

[00:38:59] Like there's this part on a train like I just viscerally remember, happening. And so I think that. Luc does a really great job of pulling us in as the reader. And again, taking something that can be really complex and also just kind of difficult to understand and then pulling it into a way that makes us see what all of this looks like for the people experiencing it.

[00:39:25] So again, that is Valeria Lucelli's Lost Children Archive, and I think that while it is fiction, I think it gets at the heart of some of these issues that are in Solito.

[00:39:35] Jen: Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a great pairing. I agree just about those scenes. Like you said, it's such a great fiction pairing because. There's that truth at the heart of it, even though it is fictional that connects so well to Javier's story. Yeah,

[00:39:49] Ashley: yeah. Well, we want to end this part with our bookish hearts. Jen, how many bookish hearts?

[00:39:54] Jen: I'd give it five, I think, rereading it. There are parts that are a little slower. it's not a fast read by any means, but I do think it's so powerful and so important that I'd give it five. How about you?

[00:40:06] Ashley: Yeah, same that I think sometimes it's weird to give rankings to memoirs or like to rate them in the same way that we might fiction. Like it's his story and he has the right to tell it however he'd like. But I agree with you that it is not particularly fast moving, but I think it is so powerful and. I love that he's willing to tell his story as he experienced it, and I think that's really powerful.

[00:40:28] So for that reason, I'd give it five.

[00:40:30] Jen: Okay.

[00:40:31] Ashley: Well,seems hard to segue from that, but we are going to wrap up today with our under bridge favorites. Jen, what's your favorite?

[00:40:39] Jen: So this is a new show I've started that's available on Apple tv. It is called Mythic Quest, and it is a half hour show that focuses on a group of people who create the game Mythic Quest. So there are cut scenes where Mythic quest throughout, but you see. The main character Ian, who is like the visionary and also a complete egotist and Poppy who is the main programmer and is just trying to put her stamp of personality on it.

[00:41:08] There's the executive producer who's always being out, voted by the creatives. So yeah, it's just this quirky group of people who work in this office. There's one character who's a Nebula Award-winning sci-fi author, and he creates all the backstory. So he's trying to create backstory for everything, even things that don't really need backstory.

[00:41:25] So yeah, it's just really funny to watch them all come together to create this video game. And then you get into video game culture, like with the 14-year-old YouTuber who controls the destiny of the next iteration of Mythic Quest with his single review. And it's, it's really a lot of fun. It's very fun.

[00:41:41] It's light, which I desperately needed right now. Love a half hour show. So that's, that's my favorite right now is Myth and Quest.

[00:41:49] Ashley: I love

[00:41:50] Jen: Yeah. How about you, Ashley?

[00:41:52] Ashley: I think I'm going to say camping. It is the start of camping season, so we're really excited if you've been listening or kept up with our stuff, our family got a camper this last year. We have an A-Liner for those of you who also are in the camping world, and that is a small trailer that you.

[00:42:09] Pull behind your car and it pops up into an A frame, hence the A-Liner name. And so we are recording a little bit early. Jen and I are, and we're going to go this coming weekend. So, I'm really excited. So it's kind of the start of camping season and our family's still kind of learning the ropes, but we're really looking forward to it.

[00:42:27] I would say one other favorite that I just want to share is we planted Yoshino cherry blossom trees this last… Okay. We had… True real confession here. We had two iterations of this. The first one we planted in the spring and they all died. And I was very sad and I felt really a lot of feelings and... Guilty. All the things.

[00:42:49] I was like, this was a living thing and we killed not one, but all of them Anyway, we planted them again in the fall and. They are doing great and their blossoms are almost blooming. So every day I have the joy of going to take a look at those buds and there's something just really, really hopeful about that.

[00:43:07] So it's been fun.

[00:43:08] Jen: Good.

[00:43:09] Ashley: Well, thank you all for listening today. We would love to hear your thoughts about Solito, and if you have pairings, we would love to know about those. I know we're both always looking for more things, exploring this topic and would be happy to know which ones you've read. Thanks so much for listening.

[00:43:24] Jen: Do you have comments or opinions about what you heard today? We'd love to hear them. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter at unabridged pod or on the web@unabridgedpod.com for ways to support us to get more involved. You can sign up for our newsletter. Join a Buddy Reed or become an ambassador.

[00:43:43] Thanks for listening to Unabridged.

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