Summary of American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

By Peter Cuomo

A complete summary of Jeanine Cummins book American Dirt

About the original book:
Lydia Quixano Pérez, a bookshop owner in Acapulco, saves her son Luca from a massacre that kills out their whole family at a quinceañera barbeque. The offenders are three sicarios, murders for Los Jardineros, a vicious local gang. Javier Crespo Fuentes, Lydia’s close friend and the jefe of Los Jardineros, ordered the killing in revenge for an exposé authored by Lydia’s husband, a writer called Sebastián Pérez Delgado. Javier’s violent wrath derives not from the story itself, but from the damage it has on his daughter, Marta, who commits suicide when she learns of her father’s actual identity. Lydia and Luca spend the rest of the novel escaping from Javier’s soldiers, encountering a colorful cast of refugees along the way to the US.

• Language: English
• Publisher: C.B. Publishers
• Release date: Nov 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005837969

Peter Cuomo

"With certain books, one wonders: who will read them? And with certain people you wonder: what will they read? And finally, books and people meet ”.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

The novel begins with a slaughter of a Mexican family in Acapulco during a quinceanera celebration. Lydia's husband, Sebastián, and her 15-year-old niece, Yénifer, are among the sixteen people slain at Lydia's mother's home.

Lydia and her son, Luca, are the only ones who make it out alive, narrowly avoiding being shot by a bullet while using the restroom. Lydia goes after Luca. He loses his balance and cracks his lip.

While gunshots echo around them, the two cower behind a shower wall. They overhear three sicarios (Sebastián and Luca) seeking a guy and a child. One of the assassins snaps a picture of a dead youngster, believing it to be Luca, but it is Adrián, Luca's nine-year-old cousin.

The three men go through the residence looking for clues. Lydia discovers a speck of Luca's blood on the floor of the restroom.

She bends out to brush it away with the sleeve of her blouse, narrowly escaping being spotted by one of the assassins.

The man urinates and then helps himself to the grill's grilled chicken. Lydia walks out after a brief pause, leaving Luca alone in the restroom. Before the tragedy, he recalls his mother and grandma quarreling. Lydia calls the cops at the end of the chapter.

CHAPTER 2

Lydia returns to the restroom to get Luca, who is curled up in a ball on the floor and rocking. She coaxes him out the front door to keep him out of the backyard's terrible scene. While they sit side by side on the sidewalk waiting for the cops, Lydia shakes uncontrollably and Luca vomits.

While a senior detective questions Lydia, who breaks down in tears, officers surround the house with crime-scene tape and begin their investigation. Luca reassures her. While Lydia meets with the detective, the medical examiner takes Luca to her van and gives him a drink. She claims she didn't see the three shooters' faces and that Sebastián was the intended target.

She expresses concern that the sicarios may return to murder her and Luca. Seven of the police officers and medical personnel on the site are in the cartel's payroll, the detective observes quietly. Lydia and Luca's survival has already been reported to Los Jardineros via an informant.

Lydia makes the decision to leave her mother's house. The detective inquires whether she has any information about the massacre's perpetrators. Javier, the jefe of Los Jardineros, is her buddy, she informs him. She discovers the message the assassins placed on Sebastián's body as she recovers his vehicle keys: My entire family is dead because of me (11).

She takes off Sebastián's wedding band, gets 15,000 pesos from under her mother's mattress, packs her belongings, and leaves with Luca.

CHAPTER 3

Before recovering their possessions, Lydia inspects Sebastián's automobile to make sure it hasn't been wired. She gives Luca Sebastián his red Yankees cap, which he keeps for the remainder of the book.

Lydia transports Luca to and from buses in case he has a tail. She is concerned that she is being observed by bus drivers, many of whom work for the cartel as halcones, or lookouts.

She takes Luca to the bank to empty her account before heading to Walmart to stock up on essentials such as a backpack for Luca, clothes, flashlights, canteens, and a retractable-blade machete.

Lydia checks into a seaside hotel under a fictitious identity and pays cash for a room.

Luca is unable to express the feelings he has been suppressing all day, even in the protection of their room. Lydia arranges their possessions while he watches TV.

Lydia takes a step out onto the balcony, her dread drowning out her sadness. Meanwhile, the clerk texts the cartel to let them know Lydia and Luca have