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Hi everyone! If you’re like me, you like to stay on top of the latest celebrity book club picks, with the most popular being run by Reese Witherspoon.
As of late, her book club, Hello Sunshine, has moved almost entirely onto a mobile app. if you haven’t checked it out, you should at least take a peek. Warning – it’s not entirely user friendly.
Reese’s March 2021 Book Club Pick
Anyways, Reese’s March 2021 adult fiction pick is Infinite Country by Patricia Engel. The synopsis is as follows:
Talia is being held at a correctional facility for adolescent girls in the forested mountains of Colombia after committing an impulsive act of violence that may or may not have been warranted. She urgently needs to get out and get back home to Bogotá, where her father and a plane ticket to the United States are waiting for her. If she misses her flight, she might also miss her chance to finally be reunited with her family in the north.
How this family came to occupy two different countries, two different worlds, comes into focus like twists of a kaleidoscope. We see Talia’s parents, Mauro and Elena, fall in love in a market stall as teenagers against a backdrop of civil war and social unrest.
We see them leave Bogotá with their firstborn, Karina, in pursuit of safety and opportunity in the United States on a temporary visa, and we see the births of two more children, Nando and Talia, on American soil. We witness the decisions and indecisions that lead to Mauro’s deportation and the family’s splintering—the costs they’ve all been living with ever since.
Award-winning, internationally acclaimed author Patricia Engel, herself a dual citizen and the daughter of Colombian immigrants, gives voice to all five family members as they navigate the particulars of their respective circumstances. And all the while, the metronome ticks: Will Talia make it to Bogotá in time? And if she does, can she bring herself to trade the solid facts of her father and life in Colombia for the distant vision of her mother and siblings in America?
Rich with Bogotá urban life, steeped in Andean myth, and tense with the daily reality of the undocumented in America, Infinite Country is the story of two countries and one mixed-status family—for whom every triumph is stitched with regret, and every dream pursued bears the weight of a dream deferred.
Initial Thoughts
It sounds like an interesting pick. Personally, I would have chosen The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner (and was secretly hoping this would be selected) as we had just read the The Sanatorium.
However, with all that has gone on within the past few years, it’s understandable that this type of story (escaping to America) is being told. I just hope it can differentiate itself from 2020’s smash hit, American Dirt.
This will be the first novel I’ve read by Patricia Engel, so I’m excited to explore her scene settings and writing style. I’ll be diving into this one today and will have my review and book club questions up soon.
What do you think about Reese’s March 2021 pick?
To buy Infinite Country from Amazon, click here.
