A review by pangnaolin
Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay In Forty Questions by Valeria Luiselli

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

Tell Me How it Ends is a pretty rough read, but super informative and beautifully told. It follows a loose guided structure as Luiselli recounts the 40 questions she was to ask migrant children, in order to help lawyers to put together a coherent story and case, when working as an immigration court interpreter. She walks through the small cultural references we might never have known otherwise— “La Bestia” and “la hielera” (or the icebox) to name a couple— and weaves a beautiful and painful history of the US’s immigration crisis and all its causes and effects.

Her style is simple and beautiful, but that doesn’t mean to insinuate a lacking in complexity.  The essays are incredibly accessible for someone like me who struggled with brain fog, yet tackle each topic with grace, thought, and empathy. I loved her writing so much and feel like I learned a lot and gained a deeper understanding of the things I already knew through this read.

I’d definitely recommend this book to anyone at all interested— it’s a short, succinct, and amazing read, and I can’t imagine regretting it.