From the highly acclaimed author of Corregidora and The Healing--a
rare and unforgettable journey set along the US-Mexico border about
identity, immigration, and "the new underground railroad."
"Jones's great achievement is to reckon with both history and
interiority, and to collapse the boundary between them."--Anna Wiener,
The New Yorker
First discovered and edited by Toni Morrison, Gayl Jones has been
described as one of the great literary writers of the 20th century. In
Mosquito, she examines the US-Mexico border crisis through the eyes of
Sojourner Nadine Jane Johnson, an African American truck driver known as
Mosquito. Her journey beings after discovering a stowaway who nearly
gives birth in the back of her truck, sparking her accidental and yet
growing involvement in "the new underground railroad," a sanctuary
movement for Mexican immigrants.
As Mosquito's understanding of the immigrants's need to forge new lives
and identities deepens, so too does Mosquito's romance with Ray, a
gentle revolutionary, philosopher, and, perhaps, a priest. Along the
road, Mosquito introduces us to Delgadina, a Chicana bartender who fries
cactus, writes haunting stories, and studies to become a detective;
Monkey Bread, a childhood pal who is, improbably, assistant to a blonde
star in Hollywood; Maria, the stowaway who names her baby Journal, a
misspelled tribute to her unwitting benefactor Sojourner; and many more.
