Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli is a novel about a family on a journey to the Southwest in search of the places that echo in their family’s memory. By interweaving stories from the lives of the family members and from the lives of the Lost Children of the Border, the novel provides an intimate view of a contemporary immigration crisis.
The novel centers around a family of four – the father, mother, son, and daughter – whose names are never given. The family is planning a road trip from New York to the Southwest in search of a place where the father’s family has always wanted to visit. As they traverse the United States, the family will visit places that have haunted the father since childhood and that have been important to the family’s collective memory.
The father is an audio archivist and he has brought with him a bag of recording equipment that he plans to use to document their journey. His wife is a documentarian and photographer, so she also accompanies the family on their trip, with the intention of capturing the journey on film. The son and daughter of the family are significantly younger, and the novel follows their process of discovery as they travel through new landscapes and experience unfamiliar cultures.
The family’s trip is a brief respite from what is happening around them. As they travel through the U.S., they pass through the cities and towns that are home to the Lost Children of the Border - unaccompanied minors who have crossed the U.S. - Mexico border and are seeking refuge. This looming presence of desperation and sorrow, juxtaposed with the family’s joy and hope, adds a complexity to the narrative.
Valeria Luiselli, who is also an immigration activist, portrays the immigration crisis with great sensitivity and nuance. She humanizes the stories of the Lost Children of the Border by exploring themes of memory, identity, and belonging. The result is a poignant exploration of a contemporary immigration crisis – and one that resonates deeply with the present moment.
Lost Children Archive is powerful and provocative. It is an urgent novel, one that implores us to pay attention to an issue that is often viewed with indifference and cynicism. Offering a unique perspective of a family’s journey, it captures both the desperation and the hope that is generated by a contemporary immigration crisis in a way that no news story ever could. It is certainly a novel that you should not miss.
