Graphic: Natalie Peeples
In the compulsively readable
Infinite Country, author Patricia Engel travels between all manner of borders, figurative and otherwise. The 2011 PEN/Hemingway finalist moves from the intimate taking inspiration from the lives of family members to the universal, in the shared history of migration. Many storytellers get tripped up on such a journey, as they end up crafting either what’s deemed too specific a story (and “not relatable enough”) or, in an attempt to represent what is actually a disparate group of people and cultures, they reduce individuals to totems. While Engel’s expediency with detail occasionally prevents parts of the story from taking root, it keeps the novel from stopping in its tracks.