Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here

Urgent, extraordinary … a tribute to the astonishing indomitability of the human spirit – Patrick Radden Keefe, New York Times bestselling author of Say Nothing and Empire of PainEveryone Who Is Gone Is Here is a searing, gut-wrenching, and masterfully reportedaccount of one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the twenty-first century. – Jill Lepore, New York Times bestselling author of These Truths: A History of the United StatesEveryone Who Is Gone Is Here is a masterpiece that everybody, everybody should read. – Javier Zamora, New York Times bestselling author of SolitoI really loved it. I couldn’t put it down. – Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, author of The Undocumented AmericansThis book will tear your heart out … The main characters are drawn with the richness of great fiction. – William Finnegan, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Barbarian DaysWith rare humanity, narrative acumen, and a detective’s eye for the telling detail, Jonathan Blitzer has given the U.S.-Central American immigration crisis the epic treatment that it deserves … A remarkable and invaluable achievement. – Jon Lee Anderson, bestselling author of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary LifeA decades-long regional tragedy plays out in riveting detail, and no one who reads Jonathan Blitzer’s marvelous new book will ever view the current headlines in quite the same way. – Daniel Alarcón, author of At Night We Walk in Circles and Lost City RadioEveryone Who Is Gone is Here is a book about immigration of unparalleled significance: a definitive history of the human tragedy wrought by decades of flawed U.S. policies, and the rare triumph of those who outrun, outwit, and outlast them. – Eliza Griswold, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Amity and ProsperityPowerful and deeply compelling – Ana Raquel Minian, author of In the Shadow of LibertyWriting with clarity and grace, while avoiding the mawkish tone sometimes associated with tales of the border, Blitzer makes a compelling case that the United States and Central America are knit as one. * The Washington Post *[A] timely and instructive history of the immigration crisis … The strangers at our border have a familiar history that Blitzer tells in meticulous and vivid detail. It is our own. * The New York Times *To answer the question of why so many children—why so many people, period—continue to risk so much to leave their countries and come to a place not only that is foreign to them, but where they may well be unwelcome, demands a confrontation with the recent past. What I saw then—and what we’re seeing today on the southern border and in cities including New York, where more than 100,000 migrants arrived in the past year—are reverberations of a long, violent history that implicates the United States for its meddling in Central America … This book begins the reckoning we desperately need. * The Atlantic *Blitzer weaves the strands of oral history and hard data to vivid effect here. His keen eye for nuance in language, as well as a gift for setting and pacing, hold this multi-narrative work together and help create a sense of urgency. * Alta Journal *A moving, sweeping, and masterful look at migration to the US and the many ways American policy has actually propelled people to make these journeys … There are messages here not just for America, but for rich countries across the world implementing increasingly cruel policies to try and stop migration at any cost. – Sally Hayden, author of My Fourth Time, We Drowned

Jonathan Blitzer is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He has won a National Award for Education Reporting as well as an Edward R. Murrow Award, and was a 2021 Emerson Fellow at New America. He lives with his family in New York City.