Book Review: Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions

If you do not believe anything more can be said about the immigrant experience, I encourage you to read the short treatise by award-winning author Valeria Luiselli, Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions. Valeria’s prose and unique perspective as a court interpreter coalesce into a narrative that packs a punch. An immigrant herself, she volunteered in 2015 to interpret for unaccompanied minors during the waves of children who were detained crossing into the United States from the southern border. Most of us are aware that thousands of unaccompanied minors have come from Central America, fleeing violence in their home countries of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. It has been reported that due to escalating hostility in the United States toward immigrants, an increasing number of Central Americans are now traveling only as far as Mexico and seeking asylum there. However, the essence of what we can learn from this book remains significant, particularly when we consider that as recently as April 2014 thru August 2015 more than 102,000 unaccompanied children were detained at the U.S. border.