New York Times Bestseller • Read With Jenna Book Club Pick as seen on Today • Winner of the Los
Angeles Times Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiography • Winner of the American Library
Association Alex Award • A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century A young poet
tells the inspiring story of his migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of
nine in this “gripping memoir” (NPR) of bravery hope and finding family. Finalist for the
PEN John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction • One of the New York Public Library’s Ten Best
Books of the Year Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence and the PEN Open
Book Award “I read Solito with my heart in my throat and did not burst into tears until the
last sentence. What a person what a writer what a book. ” —Emma Straub “A riveting tale of
perseverance and the lengths humans will go to help each other in times of struggle.”—Dave
Eggers ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review NPR The
Washington Post San Francisco Chronicle Vulture She Reads Kirkus Reviews Trip. My
parents started using that word about a year ago—“one day you’ll take a trip to be with us.
Like an adventure.” Javier Zamora’s adventure is a three-thousand-mile journey from his small
town in El Salvador through Guatemala and Mexico and across the U.S. 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 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. 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. A memoir as gripping as it is moving Solito provides an immediate
and intimate account not only of a treacherous and near-impossible journey but also of the
miraculous kindness and love delivered at the most unexpected moments. Solito is Javier
Zamora’s story but it’s also the story of millions of others who had no choice but to leave
home.