The Line Becomes A River - Hardcover

Francisco Cantu served as an agent for the United States Border Patrol from 2008 to 2012, working in the deserts of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. A former Fulbright fellow, he is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and a 2017 Whiting Award. His writing and translations have been featured in The Best American Essays, Harper's, n+1, Orion, and Guernica, as well as on This American Life. He lives in Tucson, Arizona.

"One of the perks of being a writer is you get sent proofs of books. Most are not for me but occasionally you get sent a gem. The Line Becomes a River is such a book. It is stunningly good. Beautiful, smart, raw, sad, poetic and humane... It's the best thing I've read for ages" -- James Rebanks, author of THE SHEPHERD'S LIFE "Lyrical and moving... Cantu describes the borderlands and his work there with a raw-nerved tenderness that seems to have been won from both the landscape and the violence he was implicated in. Told in three increasingly soul-searching parts, The Line Becomes a River frequently feels momentous... Remarkable" -- William Atkins * Guardian * "Tender, lyrical, and with a singular poise that is unsentimental and restrained, in prose as clear as desert air" -- John Paul Rathbone * Financial Times * "[A] must-read memoir ... Cantu's skill as a writer proves an equal match for his material. A digestible account of US and Mexico relations, a nuanced portrait of Mexican cultural blessings and ills, The Line Becomes A River is a page-turning personal story that holds until the final page and wrenches long after." -- Olivia Cole * GQ * "Humanity is the preoccupation of The Line Becomes a River-recognizing it, acknowledging it, salvaging it." -- Carlos Lozada * Washington Post * "[Cantu's] compelling, tragic account may help to break down the wall for others, too." * The Economist * "A raw, compelling memoir... The Line Becomes a River offers an eloquent rebuke to all those who look to build walls rather than build bridges between people." -- Nick Rennison * Sunday Times * "Cantu's sparsely poetic non-fiction debut is timely ... Radio 4's Book of the Week is brilliantly evocative of the starkly beautiful reaches of the desert and of the human stories behind the statistics. Alongside the personal dimension, Cantu intelligently explores the history and causes of Mexican immigration to America, and the US response." * Radio Times * "Fascinating and heartbreaking." -- Lucy Scholes * The Independent * "Opening the pages of The Line Becomes A River is like entering a new world." -- Suzanne Lynch * Irish Times * "[A] honest (and, not incidentally, beautifully written) evocation of one human experience." -- Daniel Hahn * The Spectator * "Spare, graceful, and full of the details that propel a good story... His life on the line has made him the kind of expert we need to hear from." * Boston Globe * "Brilliantly evocative of the starkly beautiful reaches of the desert and of the human stories behind the statistics." -- Nick Curtis * Radio Times * "A nuanced portrait of Mexican cultural blessings and ills... A page-turning personal story that holds until the final page and wrenches long after." -- Brett Anderson * GQ Magazine * "Especially timely and resonant." * Entertainment Weekly * "Quietly heartbreaking...intimate and unforgettable." * BookPage * "Raw and timely confessional... A striking picture of the unsparing borderlands." * Minneapolis Star Tribune * "A book that whips across your face like a sandstorm, embedding bits of the desert into your skin that, like it or not, you'll carry forward." * San Francisco Chronicle * "This beautiful and horrifying memoir should be required reading by anyone who feels that immigration is the nation's number one issue right now." * NY Journal of Books * "His lyrical asides about the border, from the history of its creation to quotations of poets who've written about it, are passionately delivered and speak to his urge to give nameless migrants an identity" * LA Times *