The Devil's Highway

A True Story

By: Luis Alberto Urrea

Narrated by: Luis Alberto Urrea

This important book from a Pulitzer Prize finalist follows the brutal journey a group of men take to cross the Mexican border: "the single most compelling, lucid, and lyrical contemporary account of the absurdity of U.S. border policy" (The Atlantic).

In May 2001, a group of men attempted to cross the Mexican border into the desert of southern Arizona, through the deadliest region of the continent, the "Devil's Highway." Three years later, Luis Alberto Urrea wrote about what happened to them. The result was a national bestseller, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a "book of the year" in multiple newspapers, and a work proclaimed as a modern American classic.

Critic reviews

"The single most compelling, lucid, and lyrical contemporary account of the absurdity of U.S. border policy."—The Atlantic

"It makes what currently passes for our public debate over illegal immigration seem appallingly abstract and tin-eared. The Devil's Highway isn't just a great book, it's a necessary one."—Jeff Salamon, Austin American-Statesman

"Urrea's writing is wickedly good--outrage tempered with concern channeled into deft prose."—Kathleen Johnson, Kansas City Star

"Urrea writes about U.S.-Mexican border culture with a tragic and beautiful intimacy that has no equal."—Tom Montgomery Fate, Boston Globe

"One of the great surrealistic tragedies of the global age...Urrea has crafted an impassioned and poetic exploration of the dark side of globalization, where commodities flow free and people die in the desert."—Jefferson Cowie, Chicago Tribune

"In artful yet uncomplicated prose, Urrea captivatingly tells how a dozen men squeezed by to safety...Confident and full of righteous rage, Urrea's story is a well-crafted melange of first-person testimony, geographic history, cultural and economic analysis, poetry and an indictment of immigration policy."—Publishers Weekly

"A powerful, almost diabolical impression of the disaster and the exploitative conditions of the border. Urrea shows immigration policy on the human level."—Booklist

Truly fantastic!

I am using this book in a chicana/o literature program and it is by far my favorite book on the list. The author does a great job of narrating the story. This book is incredibly important, very well written, and a great listen. In spite of dealing with a horrible event, an event that is rendered with such a visceral realism that you feel you are dying in the dessert, it is still a well told, often funny, narrative. The story encompasses the complete experience of this boarder event and the people it involves. In fact, the empathy of the author for all who become involved is phenomenal. You get to know everyone in a very firsthand way: the boarder patrol, the immigrants, and the coyote. It is such an accomplishment.

Poetic journalism

The author is not a traditional non-fiction writer, and this book is better for it. This book is fierce, unflinching, heartbreaking -- and illuminating. The events described may be 20 years old, but the themes are timeless. Highly recommend.

Thankful that TheWall fixed the immigration crisis

I'm guessing that the people complaining about narration don't know any Mexican Americans from the southwest... The author reads with an authentic flair and it's wonderful to hear the accurate pronunciations and tone to some of the colloquialisms that are unique to the beige nightmare I call home.

Given the many changes to border politics and policy, I'd love to see an updated edition with those things addressed.

One of the best books I’ve read in a long time.

Having worked with undocumented Mexican workers in the US and having lived in Mexico, I was familiar with so much of this kind of story. So sad. Wonderful writer.

The heartbreak

There isn’t a part of the story that isn’t heartbreaking. There is blame to go all around and the vilifying of one group or another is keeping the border issues unsolved. I wish we had a cabinet level collection of knowledgeable people who could manage to address the problems in a more nuanced way. The author makes it clear that we need that!