Preview
  • Soldiers and Kings

  • Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling
  • By: Jason De León
  • Narrated by: Jason De León
  • Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (10 ratings)

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Soldiers and Kings

By: Jason De León
Narrated by: Jason De León
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Publisher's summary

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

“A work of extraordinary reportage and compassion...[it] will shock you, move you, and leave you changed.”—Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Evicted and Poverty, by America

“An enlightening, frightening, unforgettable read.”—Sandra Cisneros, bestselling author of The House on Mango Street

An intense, intimate and first-of-its-kind look at the world of human smuggling in Latin America, by a MacArthur "genius" grant winner and anthropologist with unprecedented access

Political instability, poverty, climate change, and the insatiable appetite for cheap labor all fuel clandestine movement across borders. As those borders harden, the demand for smugglers who aid migrants across them increases every year. Yet the real lives and work of smugglers—or coyotes, or guides, as they are often known by the migrants who hire their services—are only ever reported on from a distance, using tired tropes and stereotypes, often depicted as boogie men and violent warlords. In an effort to better understand this essential yet extralegal billion dollar global industry, internationally recognized anthropologist and expert Jason De León embedded with a group of smugglers moving migrants across Mexico over the course of seven years.

The result of this unique and extraordinary access is SOLDIERS AND KINGS: the first ever in-depth, character-driven look at human smuggling. It is a heart-wrenching and intimate narrative that revolves around the life and death of one coyote who falls in love and tries to leave smuggling behind. In a powerful, original voice, De León expertly chronicles the lives of low-level foot soldiers breaking into the smuggling game, and morally conflicted gang leaders who oversee rag-tag crews of guides and informants along the migrant trail. SOLDIERS AND KINGS is not only a ground-breaking up-close glimpse of a difficult-to-access world, it is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction.

©2024 Jason De León (P)2024 Penguin Audio
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Critic reviews

Orange County Register's "20 Highly Anticipated Books Coming in 2024 We Want to Read"

“A unique read that emerges from seven years of research and firsthand experiences lived by the author amidst smugglers, or ‘guías,’ on the U.S.-Mexico border…De León offers a glimpse into a world rarely seen or understood.”Los Angeles Times

“A rare inside look at human smuggling on the border … Smuggling, [De León] says, ‘is not the problem.’ But as his own book memorably recounts, in a world with no shortage of problems, it’s nevertheless one of them.”The New York Times

“The book’s great virtue is in its close attention to the individual lives of its small group of central characters...toggling between the macro and the micro: the globe-spanning, incomprehensibly vast forces that have brought these smugglers’ lives into being, as well as their own individual struggles to make something of what the world has made of them.”The New Republic

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Gritty and raw

Gritty and compelling. I dreamt like I came to know the people in this book. A must read for anyone who wants to understand migration and human smuggling.

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Honest and enlightening

This book helped me comprehend the reasons why people come to America illegally and struggles they may face in the journey from the southern border.

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Outstanding

This is a very unique and very well written book. This provides a much needed voice to a very complex issue. Kudos to the author for having the courage to do the research and heart to writing this book.

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You must read this book!

Eye opening book on what migrants have to go through in search of a better life.

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