Books on GIF #93 — 'Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions' by Valeria Luiselli
booksongif.substack.com
Welcome to a special edition of Books on GIF, the animated alternative to boring book reviews. This Sunday's selection is ‘Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions’ by Valeria Luiselli. I was originally going to send this review next week, but this essay in book form is so informative, sobering and important that I wanted to tell you about it now while you still have time to pick it up and read it before the election. Luiselli worked as a federal court interpreter in New York City, helping children who came to the United States alone fill in an intake questionnaire. She uses the form’s questions as jumping off points to describe the bureaucratic nightmare the children face to get immigration status, and the horrific circumstances that forced them to leave countries in violent turmoil like El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, and run a gauntlet of potential gang violence, rape and death through Mexico to get here. The stories are harrowing and heartbreaking. There is the teen from Honduras who saw his friend get murdered by gang members, and knew he had to flee the country if he didn’t want the same fate. There are the two sisters, ages 5 and 7, who were trying to reach their mother in the U.S.; her phone number sewn into the collars of their dresses for law enforcement to find. There are the thousands of others not lucky enough to be found by law enforcement: victims of murder, the elements or
Books on GIF #93 — 'Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions' by Valeria Luiselli
Books on GIF #93 — 'Tell Me How It Ends: An…
Books on GIF #93 — 'Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions' by Valeria Luiselli
Welcome to a special edition of Books on GIF, the animated alternative to boring book reviews. This Sunday's selection is ‘Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions’ by Valeria Luiselli. I was originally going to send this review next week, but this essay in book form is so informative, sobering and important that I wanted to tell you about it now while you still have time to pick it up and read it before the election. Luiselli worked as a federal court interpreter in New York City, helping children who came to the United States alone fill in an intake questionnaire. She uses the form’s questions as jumping off points to describe the bureaucratic nightmare the children face to get immigration status, and the horrific circumstances that forced them to leave countries in violent turmoil like El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, and run a gauntlet of potential gang violence, rape and death through Mexico to get here. The stories are harrowing and heartbreaking. There is the teen from Honduras who saw his friend get murdered by gang members, and knew he had to flee the country if he didn’t want the same fate. There are the two sisters, ages 5 and 7, who were trying to reach their mother in the U.S.; her phone number sewn into the collars of their dresses for law enforcement to find. There are the thousands of others not lucky enough to be found by law enforcement: victims of murder, the elements or