On the Plain of Snakes
A Mexican Journey
HarperCollins · Print & ebook · October 6, 2020
The legendary travel writer drives the entire length of the US–Mexico border, then takes the back roads of Chiapas and Oaxaca, to uncover the rich, layered world behind the everyday headlines.
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- Who it’s for
- Paul Theroux travels Mexico’s borderlands and back roads, listening for the human stories beneath public debate.
- Genres
- Mexico Travel, Immigration & Emigration, Mexican History
- Published
- HarperCollins, October 6, 2020
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For younger readers: The Other Side, Borderlands and the Mexican American Story, Mexico (follow Me Around)
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The legendary travel writer drives the entire length of the US–Mexico border, then takes the back roads of Chiapas and Oaxaca, to uncover the rich, layered world behind the everyday headlines. Paul Theroux has spent his life crisscrossing the globe in search of the histories and peoples that give life to the places they call home. Now, as immigration debates boil around the world, Theroux has set out to explore a country key to understanding our current discourse: Mexico.
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Just south of the Arizona border, in the desert region of Sonora, he finds a place brimming with vitality, yet visibly marked by both the US Border Patrol to the north and mounting discord from within. With the same humanizing sensibility that he employed in Deep South, Theroux stops to talk with residents, visits Zapotec mill workers in the highlands, and attends a Zapatista party meeting, communing with people of all stripes who remain south of the border even as family members brave the journey north. From the writer praised for his “curiosity and affection for humanity in all its forms” (The New York Times Book Review), On the Plain of Snakes is an exploration of a region in conflict.
Beyond the Headlines
Paul Theroux travels Mexico’s borderlands and back roads, listening for the human stories beneath public debate.
Come here for
- A border journey attentive to the people behind immigration headlines
- Mexico explored through history, work, and everyday lives
Expect
- Conversations with residents across regions and walks of life
- A curious, grounded view of a region marked by conflict
Where it sits
| Mexico Travel | 89% |
|---|---|
| Mexican History | 55% |
| Immigration & Emigration | 29% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Lives in History
- Writers' Lives
- Personal Memoirs
- Mexican History
Show all 8 publisher categories
- South American History
- World History
- American Literary Collections
- Essay Collections
- Authors
- Paul Theroux
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- October 6, 2020
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- Lives in History