Lydia Kiesling

Lydia Kiesling is the author of The Golden State.

From her Q&A with Deborah Kalb:

Q: One of the themes the book deals with is immigration. Why did you choose that as a topic to include in the novel, and how do you feel your characters' situation resonates with recent headlines?

A: I had friends of friends who went through an immigration experience that was similar to the one in the book.

I was very struck, watching them move through our immigration system, by the combination of inefficiency and malevolence that characterized their experience. They had some bad luck, but in some ways the system seemed designed to maximize opportunities for bad luck.

The family in the novel is being separated in a much less violent way than the very literal separations that are occurring at our border right now. But it is still a separation--our policy is not built around keeping families together, and the policies have only become...[read on]

Visit Lydia Kiesling's website.

--Marshal Zeringue