2024 the best memoirs review

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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 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.

From the Publisher

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House Publishing Group; Reissue edition (June 6, 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0593498089
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593498088
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.15 x 0.9 x 7.98 inches
Reviewer: Anne P
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Couldn't put it down
Review: I was by turns gripped, mesmerized, moved, and horrified by this true story of a child's journey from El Salvador to the United States in the company of strangers from his country. I know a lot about the subject and this is one of the most moving and beautifully written accounts of the difficult journey to the U.S. I have read. Its beauty and power goes beyond the topic of migration to help us understand human compassion, selflessness, dedication, and hope as well as the darker themes of betrayal and self-interest. The author manages to put us there with his vivid descriptions of the landscapes and the way he brings alive for the reader his family in El Salvador and the people who accompanied and cared for him and others he encountered on his grueling journey. A classic telling of an important American experience.

Reviewer: Ilana Kerschbaum
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Rarely read a memoir: This is one I will recordar
Review: Raw and told from Javier’s 9 year old brutal 3 crossings to Las United States. He made it with help from 3, who were also crossing and became like family. This is a book I will recommend to many. Gifted writer and one strong human.

Reviewer: wed
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Excellent story about a very hot topic
Review: This is a blow by blow account of a 9 year old's journey from El Salvador to the US and all that entails. It's eye opening and riveting at parts. Some slower passages and sometimes repetitive wording, but overall a great book.

Reviewer: DENISS
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Nothing I say can do it Justice
Review: I cried like a baby through all of this book. His story was just so heartbreaking and powerful at the same time

Reviewer: Mom of 3 Boys and a Lil Lass
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A gifted writer; a difficult subject
Review: Javier Zamora is a gifted writer. Solito is his memoir, the story of his crossing into the US illegally as an 9-year-old boy traveling among strangers. Zamora's ability to convey to the reader the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, feels, and feelings of his crossing is exceptional. His prose waxes a bit poetic at times, but he is a poet first, and a memoir-writer second, so that is perhaps to be expected. In some ways, his poetic descriptions seem as much a part of him and of his story as the facts, people, and events he conveys. They are what brings an unexpected beauty to an otherwise unconscionable tale.While the writing of his memoir is indeed well done, and for that reason alone this book is deserving of 5 stars, the book itself is a hard one to read. Solito is not fiction. This "story" was in fact lived by a nine-year-old little boy - one who laughs, cries, plays games, worries, and talks about poop way too much (don't all 9 year old boys?) - and that is both disturbing and heartbreaking. No 9 year-old child should experience what Javier experienced, and yet he is not alone. There are many, many children, not just at the Mexican/American border, but around the world, who share these experiences, and worse.At a time when illegal immigration into the United States continues at unprecedented levels, and when states along the border of Mexico are fighting back in unprecedented ways (Arizona & Texas, specifically), this book is bound to leave the American reader feeling conflicted and wondering if there is any way to adequately address not only illegal immigration into this country, but the reasons waves of people are fleeing their homelands, their families, their livelihoods, and risking it all to find a new life in a country that works so hard to keep them out.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Fantastic
Review: Tremendous book. Wonderful writing. Beautifully brutal story. Shines new light on the migrant journey. Cannot recommend more highly. Will think about this book for a long time.

Reviewer: KWyly
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A timely must read memoir
Review: Javier was only a year old when his father left El Salvador. He was five when his mother left. All his life he remembers hearing about secret trip he would take. When he was older. When he was stronger. And now, at the age of nine, his grandmother and grandfather say it is time.Grandfather made the arrangements including the lie Javier was to tell the nuns at his school. The lie would give them two weeks before the nuns called the police.During those two weeks Javier and his grandfather traveled to a city where supplies were purchased and arrangements finalized with the coyote who would take Javier and the others across the desert to the USA - land of swimming pools, snow, pizza, and trees.They were all strangers in the group traveling together. Javier was the youngest. He knew no one. He was alone. Grandfather went back home. There were many people traveling with the coyote, Don Dago that his grandfather had hired. Within this large group, six strangers begin to bond and, unofficially, watch out for each other and it felt right. Eventually, four of the six became a “family” on the road. Nothing prepared Javier for his trip…the rigors of the walks, the heat, the thirst, the hunger, the fear he experienced as he traveled by bus, by van, by water, and by truck. As they walked in pairs, in the nighttime desert, they took care of each other… but would it be enough to get young Javier across the border? Would it be enough to protect a nine year old boy from a broken system?As I read this book, I found at times it was hard to breathe, yet I could not stop reading. I would wake up in the night and read. I found the bravery of Javier and those who looked after him to be truly amazing.Javier’s story is exceptionally well written. He never lost his bravery as this was a difficult and frightening time in his life to relive. Yet his is a story that needed to be written and a story that needs to be read. Javier Zamora, I hope the writing and publishing of this book brought you everything you hoped it would.A solid five star, life changing, read for me.

Reviewer: itamar onorio dos santos
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Memórias escritas com verdade e oportunas visões dos EUA.

Reviewer: Nina T K Moritsugu
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Compelling true story of a young El Salvadoran boy who migrated to reunite with his parents in the US. Beautifully written and an important story to be told.

Reviewer: PEPE
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Creo que TODOS debemos leer este libro y comprender por lo que pasan los migrantes, el libro te hace empatico . Una maravilla.

Reviewer: Omar P.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Solito es un libro que te roba la atención desde el primer momento hasta el final. No pensé llorar pero he terminado de leer el libro llorando. Como salvadoreño le agradezco a Javier Zamora por compartir su historia, en medio de cada relato hubiera querido ser parte del grupo para poder ayudar a Javiercito y darle un abrazo cuando se sentía solo, en serio es muy emocionante su historia.

Reviewer: G
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: The author, as narrator of this memoir, stays in your mind long after the book is finished. Also, many of the characters, especially his auntie, grandparents, and the couple and their daughter who kindly befriended him on their harrowing journey. It seems to his regret, that they lost touch with each other. Sincerely hope they find each other again and that life goes well for all.A book that educates, that may help change peoples perspective on a heartbreaking problem faced by many