The Book

The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea

The Devil's Highway follows 26 men who in May 2001 attempted to cross the Mexican border into the desert of southern Arizona, a landscape dubbed the Devil's Highway. Of the 26, only 12 survived. They had to contend with the U.S. Border Patrol ("La Migra"), vigilantes bent on taking the law into their own hands, the Mexican Federales, rattlesnakes, severe hypothermia and the remorseless sun. Urrea's tale is about the dozen men who walked to safety and the 14 others whom the media labeled the "Yuma 14" who did not. Through his reporting, Urrea tells the complex story of life on the U.S. border, bringing humanity both to those who enforce border policies and those who attempt to enter the country. Urrea takes us back to the small towns and unpaved cities south of the border, where the poor fall prey to dreams of a better life and the sinister promises of smugglers. We meet the men who will decide to make the crossing along the Devil's Highway and, on the other side of the border, the men who are ready to prevent them from reaching their destination. Urrea reveals exactly what happened when the twenty-six headed into the wasteland, and how they were brutally betrayed by the one man they had trusted most. And from that betrayal comes the Inferno, a descent into a world of cactus spines, labyrinths of sand, mountains shaped like the teeth of a shark, and a screaming sun so intense that even at midnight the temperature had only dropped to 97 degrees. And yet, the men would not give up. The Devil's Highway is a story of astonishing courage and strength, of an epic battle of men against circumstance. These twenty-six men would look the Devil in the eyes – and some of them would not blink. Spectacularly written, The Devil's Highway is a trip to hell and back that is not only an astonishing piece of investigative reporting but also a literary tour de force. The Devil's Highway was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction.