This book is very hard hitting. There is a lot of mention of sexual assault. The story gripped me. This is a very heartbreaking read. It is written so well.

A quick read that really packs a punch. Emotional, heart-wrenching and intriguing and despite some of the content, really readible. Does jump about a bit with past and present and characters, but each voice is different enough to tell where you are as you read.

CW: sexual assault

Thanks to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster UK and Patricia Engel for an eArc copy in exchange for an honest review.

Just finished this in two nights.What a read I felt I was living there story.The strength the mom showed in keeping going for her family.A fantastic book.

This is a look at 'illegal immigration' from a different point of view. The story is split into two. That at least is one way of looking at it. The two halves of a family are in two different countries. One part of the story is told in real-time, while the other is the past to show how things came to be the way they are now. There are also several voices lending their thoughts to the plotline. So many variations in the voices and styles should have either been incongruous or overlapped and sounded like the same person but did not. The author's best work was in showing each person and their own personal yearnings and dreams as individual parts of the whole. It made the reading engrossing.
We have a small Colombian family who travels to the US on a visitor's visa without too much forethought into what happens next. The harder part of the story is the struggle in accepting and enjoying their respective decisions. No one is happy as the story progresses, but despite the lack of any legal relationship, the parents consider themselves a unit, regardless of the distance that separates them. This was very refreshing (even in the face of all the trouble they experienced).
I liked the writing, the vivid characterization of all the people and would readily pick up another book by the author, but I found the plot line a little off. There were a few turns that did not add anything to the narrative, and some other situations I would have liked to know more about, I would have rated it higher otherwise.
I would still recommend this book to anyone looking to read a tale of people who find themselves caught in the web of their own ill-thought decisions.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

I really enjoyed this tale of a family split apart. The characters felt very real, and I was invested in their heartbreaking story. I will be looking out for further works by this author.

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel is the story of a family torn apart. Mauro and Elena, with their first born, Katrina, go to the US from Colombia, on a temporary visa, but they decide to stay.  They go on to have 2 more children.  

We meet Talia, who is held in a correctional facility for adolescent girls, and she has to get home to her father, where her plane ticket to the US is waiting for her.

This is the story of how these events have happened, and the effect on the family that it has, to be separated for years.

It's an evocative and timely story, given the immigration issues in the US, and it shows the sacrifices that are made in order to try to survive in a country when undocumented.

 Infinite Country  was published on 27th May 2021 and is available from  Amazon ,  Waterstones  and  Bookshop.org .

You can follow Patricia Engel on  Twitter ,  Instagram  and her  website .

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to  Simon and Schuster UK .

A familiar immigration narrative - beautifully told, but too reminiscent of stories that have come before it.

A great novel about love, family and separation that changes everything. I really liked that the narrator also gave voice to the other characters, allowing the reader a better insight into the family situation from a micro and macro perspective. Plus, I love references to local legends in literature, and here there were several of them. The truly wonderful novel, it captures the heart and makes you think about the current world and interpersonal bonds.

This story was definitely such a short yet an impactful read that got me hooked until the very last page. It's about an immigrant Colombian family, seeking refuge in The United States in search for a better life for their family

Mauro and Elena are the parent to three beautiful children who are living separately.
While two of their children were born in the States, one of them is rummaging the lowest grounds of Colombia trying to escape the daily tortures and troubles of a young girl caught up in the currents of defending herself, while living with her grandmother

Thalia had a tough life as a young girl, but all she is dreaming about is being reunited with her parents. One day the inevitable happens and Mauro is being sent back to Colombia, leaving Elena in charge with the two children, the burdens of providing money money a safe place, and the fears of separation if they are going to denounce her as well

I might have talked about this before, but I felt so engrossed in the story, by the fact that leaving your family behind is one of the toughest things you can experience, not knowing when are you going to see them again. The novel explores important themes such as migration, deportation, alcoholism, sexual assault, racism and the unfortunate struggles so many undocumented immigrants are facing daily in the states

We are talking about integration, but what some of us are experiencing daily is far from acknowledging that being sexually assaulted, being threatened by the ICE deportation officials and being a target to racism jokes, deportation threats is not called integration

Also, I absolutely loved Thalia's relationship with her grandmother, how close they were and how Thalia was talking care of her illness. Grandma's are amazing and we should love them🤍
Many thanks to @simonshusteruk & @netgalley for the gifted e-ARC. The publication of this novel is set on 27th May in UK 🇬🇧
⭐⭐⭐⭐🌠

Elena and Mauro are a young couple, who fall in love amidst a Colombia that is ravaged by violence and civil unrest. When their first child is born, the couple flee Colombia to Houston, Texas to start new, better lives for their growing family. As the years pass, the family find themselves constantly moving to escape deportation as their visas expire but Bogota doesn’t appear to be any safer. When Mauro is deported, Elena is faced with an impossible choice. This is a soaring story of a family ripped apart by immigration laws. It’s undoubtedly a story that many families will relate to about making a new start for yourself and discovering the importance and power of familial love.

I think reading this after finishing and loving Of Women and Salt was a mistake. It's just not on the same level and given the similarity of theme, storylines, it's hard not to compare them.
Where every scene in Of Women and Salt was cut me to the bone with emotions, this was just a wooden narration of a series of events. The writing is so emotionless it's almost robotic. It's hard for me to read about a story that doesn't make me feel things, so I had to put it aside pretty early.

'Emigration was a peeling away of the skin. An undoing. You wake each morning and forget where you are, who you are, and when the world outside shows you your reflection, its ugly and distorted; you've become a scorned, unwanted creature.'

Patricia Engel's Infinite Country is a powerful, evocative tale of what the hope of starting a new life, a better life, in another country can do to a family. It can tear it apart and almost destroy each individual member of that family. But this story transcends that despair and demonstrates what love can do and shows that you should never lose hope.

'At the dawn of the new millennium, Colombia is a country devastated by half a century of violence. Elena and Mauro are teenagers when they meet, their blooming love an antidote to the mounting brutality of life in Bogotá. Once their first daughter is born, and facing grim economic prospects, they set their sights on the United States.'

This is the story of Elena and Maura, of their three children - Karina, Nando and Talia and the reality of being part of the undocumented in America. The fear, the helplessness, the stripping away of humanity, the endless sacrifices, the constant need to stay silent - are all portrayed here in these relatively few pages with the subtle dignity of someone who you know, truly understands.

For the most part this story is told in the third person and that worked. Towards the end, the two elder siblings break the narrative with first person accounts of their situation. I liked them, but it felt too late in the day for me; I am sure that this was intentional - possibly to demonstrate the next generation, the louder voice, the ability to stand above their situation and be heard - I would just have preferred to hear it sooner.

This was something small though in comparison; I loved it overall, there is a haunting beauty to the narrative, laced with Andean myth, it gives the powerful message that we need to start breaking down these man made borders, the ones that determine our worth, look to the human cost and find a better way.

Thanks to #netgalley and #scribner for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Infinite Country is a heartrending story of a Colombian families immigration experience and how they become fractured between Bogotá and the United States. You follow the family through their hardships and the incredible sacrifices they make to create a life and build a new sense of belonging.

A quick read of 191 pages though extremely powerful. These stories are essential reads to understand and empathise with the challenges faced by millions of people across the world.

I loved the main character Talia, the youngest family member, and the opening chapter that starts with her tying up the nun will have you gripped!

This story will stay with me forever. It was insightful, heart wrenching and truthful. It really put you into the characters shoes, and the development was brilliant. I would recommend this book to anyone going forward as a must read!

Infinite Country is an urgent and lyrical novel about a Colombian family fractured by deportation, offering an intimate perspective on an experience that so many have endured—and are enduring right now. At the dawn of the new millennium, Colombia is a country devastated by half a century of violence. Elena and Mauro are teenagers when they meet, their blooming love an antidote to the mounting brutality of life in Bogotá. Once their first daughter is born, and facing grim economic prospects, they set their sights on the United States.

They travel to Houston and send wages back to Elena’s mother, all the while weighing whether to risk overstaying their tourist visas or to return to Bogotá. As their family expands, and they move again and again, their decision to ignore their exit dates plunges the young family into the precariousness of undocumented status, the threat of discovery menacing a life already strained. When Mauro is deported, Elena, now tasked with caring for their three small children, makes a difficult choice that will ease her burdens but splinter the family even further.

Award-winning, internationally acclaimed author Patricia Engel, herself the daughter of Colombian immigrants and a dual citizen, gives voice to Mauro and Elena, as well as their children, Karina, Nando, and Talia—each one navigating a divided existence, weighing their allegiance to the past, the future, to one another, and to themselves. Heartbreaking and hopeful, raw and powerful, Infinite Country is strong on emotion, the unbreakable bonds of family and the will to survive through the harshest of adversity. A compelling, captivating and utterly moving immigrant tale, this is an exquisitely written story I know I'll not forget. Highly recommended.

I love when books make me want to research things, and this did that. I'm not familiar with much to do with Columbia, especially with their legends, but this book made me do some research. This book also makes me glad that a certain immigrant-hating cheeto faced buffoon is no longer ruling America. Just saying.

Infinite Country follows a Colombian family. The parents, Elena and Mario, decide to move to the United States after having their first child, Nando, in search of a safer place to live, as violence plagues Bogotá.

However, the so-called "land of opportunity" doesn't fulfill its promise. We follow them as they live precariously on the move, having a second child, Karina, surviving on a meager income and with the perpetual tension of living as "undocumented" migrants. After their third child, Talia, is born, they become separated due to Mario's deportation.

This is a brilliantly written novel that, in just about 200 pages, manages to cover topics such as violence, colonialism, assault, xenophobia, addiction, class, identity issues and the feeling of never quite belonging, of losing or leaving a part of themselves behind.

I loved the lyrical style Engel uses to describe the nostalgia the characters feel about Colombia. It is narrated from different perspectives, which at points can be a bit confusing in my opinion, but I also loved seeing each of their personalities, their regrets and their hopes. It took a bit of time to get into the plot, too, but it quickly became easy to know who was who.

I think everyone should read this book, as in very few pages Engel manages to convey a sincere and deep story about a family fractured by a system that deems some of them "illegal", a family torn between two countries where violence adopts different forms and a message about the absurdity and inherent violence of borders, "as if Creation could be divided and owned".

The moving story of a family fractured by migration, as the members of a family are scattered between the US and Colombia due to migration, deportation and different citizenship status.

This is a delicate and well-told tale of family, belonging and displacement, mixing the realities of life in Colombia and the US with the older ties of ancestors and myths. Told from the viewpoint of one daughter who is living without papers in the US, the novel looks at how all the family are affected over time, from the fierce grandmother to the child with US citizenship brought up in Colombia who goes home to a foreign country age 15.

It's a very subtle and thought-provoking story that examines the impact of migration on all members of the family and offers hope for a better and more united future.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this ARC.

Loved this book! I was attracted to it having read American Dirt, but this is so different. With strong detailing and writing throughout, it provided a much needed insight into immigration and the immigrant journey. The story is a sad one, but true for many people. I liked how each character told their story and how each was impacted. Lucky to say that this story will stay with me, and I feel this is a sign of a truly wonderful book.

This is one of the trickiest reviews I’ve written in ages. I liked and enjoyed this short book (just over 200 pages), but I didn’t love it. I’ll try to articulate why below.

It tells the story of Colombian couple Mauro and Elena, who flee Columbia in the early 2000s, propelled to seek a better life for themselves and their daughter Karina. They go on to have two more children Nando and Talia in the US, both of whom are legal citizens.

It is a moving story of migration, displacement, separation, belonging, and the fear and isolation involved in living as an undocumented American. There is a constant tug for the family towards home in Columbia and the family end up being forcibly split apart (no spoiler as the book opens with Talia in Columbia).

I loved the story itself, the well-developed characters of Mauro, Elena and Talia and the use of Andean mythology to give colour to the Colombian Andean heritage of the family.

The fear felt by Elena as an undocumented migrant was palpable and the invisibility required of the children (in particular Karina) was striking and sad. The opening line of the book (“It was her idea to tie up the nun”) is superb and launches you straight into the story.

My main issue with the book was in the narration. Most of the book is narrated in the third person with little or no dialogue, when unexpectedly in the final third, it switches to the first person (two hitherto barely developed characters). It felt clumsy and more like an afterthought.

The voices were entirely stylistically different to what came before - I actually preferred them - which made me think maybe the whole book might have been better written from that personal perspective! Arguably, the jarring nature of it was fully intended to mirror the splintering of the family.

A minor quibble but Elena and Talia’s religious faith comes up a a few times in the book (fair enough), but there are a few incongruous anti-abortion references in the book that felt jarring and unnecessary (every American encountered by Elena appeared from her perspective to be rabidly pro-abortion).

I did enjoy the book on the whole and was moved by the ending. 3.5/5 ⭐️

This was a @reecesbookclub pick for March 2021. It will be published here on 27 May. I was grateful to read an advance digital copy of the book courtesy of the publishers @SimonschusterUK via @netgalley. As always, this is an honest review.*