Torrential and dreamlike Mauro Javier Camp225aacuterdenas novel unfurls into a layered poignant and unflinching portrait of how family separations have impacted the minds of Latin American deportees in a technologybound 21st centuryamp10American Abductions opens in a nearfuture United States whose omnipresence of dataharvesting and algorithms has enabled the mass incarceration and deportation of Latin Americansregardless of citizenship After their father is abducted by immigration officials before their eyes and deported to Colombia Ada and her sister Eva are left to contend with a United States as allseeing as it is hostile Now adults Ada remains in San Francisco while Eva has joined their father in Colombia tending him in his ailing health When his condition worsens Eva asks Ada to come see them a nearly impossible feat given the United Statesamp8217 restrictions on Latin Americansamp8217 movements Ada terribly alone must come to terms with the violence of American society and the grief of lost community Exploring the role of technology mass society and American expectations on how Latin American deportees should tell their stories the novel delves into the ties memories and lines of code binding communities togetheramp10Mauro Javier Camp225rdenas has been lauded as one of the most promising Latin American authors and in American Abductions his deconstruction of American society and the surveillance state proves his generationdefining acuity and storytelling The...
