From the #1 bestselling, award-winning author of The Golden Spruce and The Tiger: a rich, gripping literary thriller in the spirit of The Constant Gardener that showcases the narrative power for which John Vaillant is internationally acclaimed.
Hector, a young Zapotec fleeing Mexico for a better life in the US with his friend Cesar, a biotech researcher, pays to be smuggled across the border by unscrupulous "coyotes," concealed in the tightly sealed, empty tank of a water truck packed with illegal migrants. Abandoned by the smugglers in the desert, they are left to die, their only lifeline Cesar's phone. When Cesar slips into unconsciousness, Hector reaches out to the one name with an American code--AnniMac--that becomes his lifeline to the world as he reveals what has brought him to this place, taking us back to an older Mexico; to the lives of his Zapotec grandparents and the ancient, mythic traditions, to the mystery behind the jaguar icon left to him by a mysterious archeologist, and the power of the corn myth. As legends fuse with the terrifying present, the dangers Cesar is fleeing become grippingly apparent: his research was threatening to expose the country's largest manufacturer of genetically modified corn, set to impose economic and cultural genocide on the native population. Finding the courage to survive is critical, even as hope dwindles.

John Vaillant's work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and National Geographic among other magazines. His books, The Tiger and The Golden Spruce, were international bestsellers. His most recent book, The Jaguar's Children is his first novel.

John Vaillant's profile page

• Long-listed, International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
• Nominated, OLA Evergreen Award

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice
Longlisted for the DUBLIN Literary Award
Finalist for the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize

“Fearless.” —Globe and Mail

“Extraordinary. . . . The horrors of a single passage over the border blossom into a human history of sorrow and suffering, all of it beginning with the thirst to be free.” —NPR

“Vaillant’s triumph. . . . This is what novels can do—illuminate shadowed lives, enable us to contemplate our own depths of kindness, challenge our beliefs about fate.” —New York Times Book Review

“Applause for John Vaillant, please. He is masterful in creating literary suspense and methodically doling out insights.” —The Vancouver Sun

“A woozy heartbreaker of a novel.” —The Boston Globe
“Urgent and compelling.” —The Walrus

“The novel unfurls at the pace of a geopolitical thriller, with the gravitas of allegory. . . . Vaillant's prose sears as he alights on NAFTA, civil and government corruption, and the tensions between past and present affecting Mexico's citizens.” —National Post

“A heart-wrenching literary thriller. . . . A complicated, generations-spanning tale . . . distressing yet often beautiful. . . . [It] will no doubt haunt the reader long after the last page is turned.” —Calgary Herald
“Gripping. . . . Vaillant’s moving novel shows a deep understanding of how societies are changed by events they cannot control, and theimpact of those changes on the fate of individuals.” —Winnipeg Free Press

“John Vaillant is in the business of writing masterpieces. But this first novel will make his many followers fall over in shock. Vaillant sees the tragedy of human predation on the border for what it is—a real-world horror worthy of Stephen King. This book rushes at you relentless as a nightmare and doesn't let up until it kicks out the walls.” —Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Devil's Highway, Into the Beautiful North and The Hummingbird's Daughter