{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260418T162306Z","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062992201?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"0062992201","authors":["Jacob Soboroff"],"book_id":"9780062992208","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/separated-0062992201","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780062992208.jpg?v=20260418T162306Z%3A2026-04-19T10%3A16%3A55Z","description":"Now a major film by Academy Award winner Errol Morris \"The seminal book on the child-separation policy.\" —Rachel Maddow Award-winning NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff lays bare the full truth behind America’s systematic separation of families at the US-Mexico border. Featuring updated reporting and a new afterword. New York Times Bestseller | Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist | American Book Award Winner | American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award Finalist In June 2018, Donald Trump’s most notorious decision as president had secretly been in effect for months before most Americans became aware of the astonishing inhumanity being perpetrated by their own government. Jacob Soboroff was among the first journalists to expose this reality after seeing firsthand the living conditions of the children in custody. His influential series of reports ignited public scrutiny that contributed to the president reversing his own policy and earned Soboroff the Cronkite Award for Excellence in Political Broadcast Journalism and, with his colleagues, the 2019 Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism. But beyond the headlines, the complete, multilayered story lay untold. How, exactly, had such a humanitarian tragedy—now deemed “torture” by physicians—happened on American soil? Most important, what has been the human experience of those separated children and parents? Soboroff has spent the past two years reporting the many strands of this complex narrative, developing sources from within the Trump administration who share critical details for the first time. He also traces the dramatic odyssey of one separated family from Guatemala, where their lives were threatened by narcos, to seek asylum at the U.S. border, where they were separated—the son ending up in Texas, and the father thousands of miles away, in the Mojave desert of central California. And he joins the heroes who emerged to challenge the policy, and who worked on the ground to reunite parents with children. In this essential reckoning, Soboroff weaves together these key voices with his own experience covering this national issue—at the border in Texas, California, and Arizona; with administration officials in Washington, D.C., and inside the disturbing detention facilities. Separated lays out compassionately, yet in the starkest of terms, its human toll, and makes clear what is at stake as America struggles to reset its immigration policies post-Trump.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780062992208","publication_date":"20210629","publisher":"HarperCollins","slug":"separated","subtitle":"Inside an American Tragedy","title":"Separated"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036070","confidence_band":"medium","label":"21st-Century America","score":0.7186,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POL035010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Human Rights","score":0.7117,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POL040010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"The Presidency & Executive","score":0.7113,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036070","confidence_band":"medium","label":"21st-Century America","score":0.7186,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POL035010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Human Rights","score":0.7117,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POL040010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"The Presidency & Executive","score":0.7113,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036070","confidence_band":"high","label":"21st-Century America","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036130","confidence_band":"high","label":"Southwest U.S. History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS037000","confidence_band":"high","label":"World History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS058000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Women's History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"LAW013000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Civil Rights","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"MED036000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Health Policy","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"MED039000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Medical History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"MED078000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Public Health","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"21st-Century America","score":0.7186,"slug":"21st-century-america"},{"label":"Human Rights","score":0.7117,"slug":"human-rights"},{"label":"The Presidency & Executive","score":0.7113,"slug":"the-presidency-executive"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy 21st-Century America","Good for readers interested in children","Good for readers who enjoy 21st-Century America and Human Rights."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Alexander Vindman","Alexander S. Vindman"],"book_id":"9780063079427","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780063079427.jpg?v=20260418T162306Z%3A2026-04-19T10%3A16%3A55Z","score":12.63,"title":"Here, Right Matters","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780063079427"},{"authors":["Daisy Hernández"],"book_id":"9780593730171","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593730171.jpg?v=20260418T162306Z%3A2026-04-19T10%3A16%3A55Z","score":12.5571,"title":"Citizenship","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593730171"},{"authors":["Bill O'Reilly"],"book_id":"9781250237224","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781250237224.jpg?v=20260418T162306Z%3A2026-04-19T10%3A16%3A55Z","score":12.2921,"title":"The United States of Trump","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781250237224"},{"authors":["Martha Brockenbrough"],"book_id":"9781250308030","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781250308030.jpg?v=20260418T162306Z%3A2026-04-19T10%3A16%3A55Z","score":12.2487,"title":"Unpresidented","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781250308030"},{"authors":["The Washington Post Fact Checker Staff","The Washington Post"],"book_id":"9781982151072","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781982151072.jpg?v=20260418T162306Z%3A2026-04-19T10%3A16%3A55Z","score":12.2443,"title":"Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781982151072"},{"authors":["Tim Miller","Josh Bloomberg","Harper","& 0 more"],"book_id":"9780063161474","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780063161474.jpg?v=20260418T162306Z%3A2026-04-19T10%3A16%3A55Z","score":12.2163,"title":"Why We Did It","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780063161474"},{"authors":["Brian Tyler Cohen"],"book_id":"9780063392885","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780063392885.jpg?v=20260418T162306Z%3A2026-04-19T10%3A16%3A55Z","score":12.2155,"title":"Shameless","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780063392885"},{"authors":["Jean Guerrero"],"book_id":"9780062986726","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780062986726.jpg?v=20260418T162306Z%3A2026-04-19T10%3A16%3A55Z","score":12.2036,"title":"Hatemonger","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780062986726"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:family separation policy"],"label":"Family","score":0.162,"slug":"family"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:story of family at border"],"label":"Story","score":0.1457,"slug":"story"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:us politics"],"label":"Politics","score":0.1054,"slug":"politics"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:migrant children"],"label":"Children","score":0.0604,"slug":"children"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Family, Story, Politics.","Reading lane: 21st Century America and Human Rights.","Publisher: HarperCollins."]},"llm_signals":null,"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":false,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":2758,"goodreads_reviews_count":445,"quality_score":0.9311}}