This is the story of a family on a road trip that enables both parents of two kids, a young boy and girl, to peruse their passion. One, the migrant/refugee crisis and the effects specifically for children. The other, a research project on the last Apache tribe. As the family travels they have rationed themselves boxes of things to consume along the trip, which are wonderfully created in the book. Sometimes the fiction consumed bleeds into the story. In tandem is the larger story about families being torn apart, with few having positive outcomes.

The prose are great, structure fantastic. Intertextuality from other texts referenced in the back peppered throughout. Polaroids (in my copy, colour) help situate the reader. Style changed within section, as appropriate to situation and character. My absolute favourite being the young girls onomatopoeia chapter. The Echo chapter presenting as wells of text. Absolutely incredible. Goes on the all-time-favourite shelf I have on here.

For 3/4 of this it was firmly 4 star territory, but the ending is actually incredible—even more so when you listen to the audiobook. There is audioscapes the mother takes that are actually present in the audiobook, and each person has a cast member narrating, which is especially powerful in later chapters. It’s the first book I’ve consumed where it felt like getting the full experience was reading it with the audiobook, and in the end I loved it so much I bought the audiobook as well.

I will say, there’s some stuff that feels esoteric to me, a Canadian, and because I read it, thankfully! with an American, she explained some of the stuff the author was discussing and alluding to (thank you, Courtney!).