Solito A Memoir

By: Javier Zamora

What makes this book remarkable is not the harrowing story of a nine year-old boy making his way from El Salvador to the United States, but that it is told in the voice of the nine-year-old boy. The voice is authentic and will tug hard on your heart strings!

“This might be the last time we sit here looking up at the stars for a long time. I pay attention to her breathing. I try to match it. But now, I want to curse, I want to curse so bad that the nuns will make me say a thousand Hail Marys as punishment. But I don't. I stay quiet. I swallow it like a big gulp of cough syrup.” p40

“I'm still mad no one but Carla cared. Patricia tried a little, but to the men, I'm a rock in their shoe. A splinter. I don't like feeling like this, like there's something missing. An unfinished puzzle. A Lego set with pieces missing.” p178

“He's mad. Mad-mad: eyebrows crunched, fists clenched, the veins on the side of his forehead jut out. His jaw, the sharpest it's looked. Nostrils wide open. He blows past us. Across our seat, the passengers look annoyed. They glare at Marcelo like I look at mosquitoes after they bite me.” p188

“Our third and final country is right there. La USA. The EE. UU. Gringolandia. The country of the movies, popcorn, pizza for school lunches, snowball fights, swimming pools, Toys "R" Us, and McDonald's. La Linea is right there.” p198

“I want to melt into the bricks. Squeeze out the other side and be in the sunlight, in the hot air, with the birds. When they fly, their shadows enter our cage. Maybe doves. Maybe crows. They sing. Squawk. Caw. It's cold and dark in here.” p248

“It's almost two A.M. The tops of the trees sway as we walk by, and some of the branch tips rattle like they're alive. Everything is awake. The moon lights the ground silver and blue. Whispy clouds dance in the sky, white ones that look like silk. With this wind and with this lighting – the blue, the grays - it feels like the bottom of the ocean.” p297

“I love looking for the big white moon. Seeing it change. It's better than looking at my watch. The moon has been up there watching me since the dawn I said goodbye to Abuelita, Mali, Lupe, Julia, the dog, the cat, and my parakeet.” p357