“When you make dal for another woman’s child, keep it a little bit raw”

To meet the challenge of reading a book with a central immigration narrative, I had to look no further than Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran, a book I requested as soon as I heard about it on NPR.

“Popocalo offered no work, only the growing and eating of a few stalks of corn.” Thus begins the story of Solimar Castro Valdez. Soli’s parents have paid a coyote to take their nineteen year old daughter from Oaxaca. Mexico to California. Despite their best laid plans, Soli strikes out on her own and hooks up with some young boys riding the trains north. She and Checo are attracted to each other instantly. When tragedy strikes, as it always must for those migrating, Soli then finds herself on an onion truck heading to San Francisco. After landing in the Mission district and thinking she was back in Mexico, she connects with her cousin Silvia. It is Silvia who points out that Soli is pregnant, but she finds her a job as a housekeeper in Berkeley.

Meanwhile Kavya , a chef, and her husband Rishi, an air quality engineer, are thirty somethings living in Berkeley. Their Craftsman home is within “wafting distance of bakeries and storied restaurants.” All is as it should be until they decide they are ready to try for a baby. One unsuccessful year later, the fertility treatment that wipes out their savings ends in miscarriage. They consider adoption. When the private agency proves beyond their means, they turn to fostering in hopes of adopting one of their charges.

Fast forward to one harrowing afternoon after Soli has given birth to Ignacio (Nacho). When Soli loses sight of the little girl in her care, she calls on her cousin to help find her. While driving around, she and her cousin are arrested after Silvia runs a red light. Nacho enters the foster system while Soli and Silvia are taken to a detention center.

Kavya and Rishi end up taking in Ignacio (Iggy) and after some weeks of adjustment fall into the exhausting but fulfilling patterns of parenting. Meanwhile, Soli is left wondering what they’ve done with her baby. Months of waiting and hearings pass. In the end, Soli makes a decision that will affect everyone’s future.

Sekaran draws out a compelling story that illustrates the heart-wrenching complications of deportation when the person in question has a U.S. born child. This novel craftily manages to elicit sympathy for both mothers, but at the same time, provides a satisfying ending.