{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1555977782?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"1555977782","authors":["Erika L. Sánchez"],"book_id":"9781555977788","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/lessons-on-expulsion-9781555977788","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781555977788.jpg?v=583d6ef865c8f93a","description":"An award-winning and hard-hitting new voice in contemporary American poetry The first time I ever came the light was weak and carnivorous. I covered my eyes and the night cleared its dumb throat. I heard my mother wringing her hands the next morning. Of course I put my underwear on backwards, of course the elastic didn't work. What I wanted most at that moment was a sandwich. But I just nursed on this leather whip. I just splattered my sheets with my sadness. —from “Poem of My Humiliations” “What is life but a cross / over rotten water?” Poet, novelist, and essayist Erika L. Sánchez’s powerful debut poetry collection explores what it means to live on both sides of the border—the border between countries, languages, despair and possibility, and the living and the dead. Sánchez tells her own story as the daughter of undocumented Mexican immigrants and as part of a family steeped in faith, work, grief, and expectations. The poems confront sex, shame, race, and an America roiling with xenophobia, violence, and laws of suspicion and suppression. With candor and urgency, and with the unblinking eyes of a journalist, Sánchez roves from the individual life into the lives of sex workers, narco-traffickers, factory laborers, artists, and lovers. What emerges is a powerful, multifaceted portrait of survival. Lessons on Expulsion is the first book by a vibrant, essential new writer now breaking into the national literary landscape.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781555977788","publication_date":"20170711","publisher":"Graywolf","slug":"lessons-on-expulsion","subtitle":"Poems","title":"Lessons on Expulsion"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"POE005070","confidence_band":"high","label":"Hispanic American Poetry","score":0.8294,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Hispanic American Lit Crit","score":0.7693,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POE023050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Family Poems","score":0.764,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"POE005070","confidence_band":"high","label":"Hispanic American Poetry","score":0.8294,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LIT004050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Hispanic American Lit Crit","score":0.7693,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POE023050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Family Poems","score":0.764,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"POE005070","confidence_band":"high","label":"Hispanic American Poetry","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Hispanic American Poetry","score":0.8294,"slug":"hispanic-american-poetry"},{"label":"Hispanic American Lit Crit","score":0.7693,"slug":"hispanic-american-lit-crit"},{"label":"Family Poems","score":0.764,"slug":"family-poems"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in poetry about life across national and language borders","Readers drawn to poems confronting sex, shame, race, and xenophobia"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Gabriel Dozal","Natasha Tiniacos"],"book_id":"9780593447291","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593447291.jpg?v=e74053d81903d964","score":0.7336,"title":"The Border Simulator","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593447291"},{"authors":["José Olivarez"],"book_id":"9781608469543","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781608469543.jpg?v=8bdc85114705afda","score":0.7283,"title":"Citizen Illegal","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781608469543"},{"authors":["Xochiquetzal Candelaria"],"book_id":"9780816528820","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780816528820.jpg?v=aec99f133b256931","score":0.714,"title":"Empire","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780816528820"},{"authors":["Eduardo C. Corral"],"book_id":"9781644450307","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781644450307.jpg?v=6a9c9a8ead9ecaaa","score":0.7124,"title":"Guillotine","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781644450307"},{"authors":["Mark Eisner","Tina Escaja"],"book_id":"9781951142070","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781951142070.jpg?v=7de9c0ea4ca6acad","score":0.7109,"title":"Resistencia","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781951142070"},{"authors":["Leslie Sainz"],"book_id":"9781959030119","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781959030119.jpg?v=f4665758b9c4285c","score":0.7077,"title":"Have You Been Long Enough at Table","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781959030119"},{"authors":["Sandra Cisneros"],"book_id":"9780593468111","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593468111.jpg?v=bf69540d2e065582","score":0.7032,"title":"Woman Without Shame","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593468111"},{"authors":["Erika L. Sánchez","Penguin Audio"],"book_id":"9780593296950","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593296950.jpg?v=9391252536153ac7","score":0.7021,"title":"Crying in the Bathroom","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593296950"}],"topics":[],"what_you_get":["Themes: Border and language, Sex, shame, and race, Survival amid xenophobia.","Reading lane: Hispanic American Poetry and Hispanic American Lit Crit.","Publisher: Graywolf."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.91,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["Readers interested in poetry about life across national and language borders","Readers drawn to poems confronting sex, shame, race, and xenophobia"],"themes":["Border and language","Sex, shame, and race","Survival amid xenophobia"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":74,"goodreads_ratings_count":720,"goodreads_reviews_count":95,"quality_score":0.9173}}