Stranger - Hardcover

Breathtaking... a work of genius -- Matthew Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of We Are Not Ourselves Like watching a game of Russian roulette... Stranger feels like a caution, warning of the dangers of continued disunity and the growing rift from inequality * Toronto Star * Brilliant and utterly convincing * Globe and Mail * The gorgeous lyricism of David Bergen's latest novel recalls the atmosphere of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea * Maclean's * Arguably his best novel... The book manages the rare feat of being profound and important but at the same time absolutely gripping * Quill and Quire *

An ageless story, the themes of dislocation and disruption, exploitation and vulnerability, rich and poor collide to make a powerful and affecting novel. Iso is a young Guatemalan woman working at a fertility clinic at Ixchel, in the highlands of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas. She caters to the rich, northern women who visit the clinic hoping the waters of the nearby lake might increase their chances of conception. It is not long before Iso meets the charming American doctor, Eric, and a romantic affair begins that will throw her life into turmoil. When an accident forces Eric to unexpectedly leave Guatemala, Iso is left heartbroken and pregnant. But her dreams of raising her newborn baby come to a screaming halt when her daughter is abducted and sent to America to live with Eric and his infertile wife who has coolly staked a claim on the child. Determined to reclaim her stolen daughter, Iso makes her way north crossing into a dystopian America divided into military zones. Travelling without documents and with little money, she descends into a world full of danger. In a place of shifting boundaries, she must determine who she can trust aware that a wrong decision could mean losing her daughter forever.