Empathy Book Club

Please register through the library's website: https://berlinpeck.org/events/2024-12-empathy-book-club/

Join us for a discussion of Solito by Javier Zamora.
The Empathy Book Club features primarily biographies and nonfiction that help us enter into the lives and experiences of others. Our goal in reading and discussing these titles is increased understanding and empathy for others.

Contact the library for a copy of the book.

About the Book
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’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 except for a group of strangers and a “coyote” hired to lead them to safety, Javier’s trip is supposed 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 a group of strangers who will come to encircle him like an unexpected family. A memoir as gripping as it is moving, Solito not only provides an immediate and intimate account of a treacherous and near-impossible journey, but also the miraculous kindness and love delivered at the most unexpected moments. Solito is Javier’s story, but it’s also the story of millions of others who had no choice but to leave home.