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An unlikely friendship, a four-thousand-mile voyage, and an impenetrable frontier-this dramatic odyssey reveals the chaos and cruelty US immigration policies have unleashed beyond our borders. Axel Kirschner was a lifelong New Yorker, all Queens hustle and bravado. But he was also undocumented. After a minor traffic violation while driving his son to kindergarten, Axel was deported to Guatemala, a country he swore he had not lived in since he was a baby. While fighting his way back through Mexico on a migrant caravan, Axel met Levi Vonk, a young anthropologist and journalist from the US. That chance encounter would change both of their lives forever. Levi soon discovered that Axel was no ordinary migrant. He was harbouring a secret: Axel was a hacker. This secret would launch the two friends on a dangerous adventure far beyond what either of them could have imagined. While Axel''s abilities gave him an edge in a system that denied his existence, they would also ensnare him in a tangled underground network of human traffickers, corrupt priests, and anti-government guerrillas eager to exploit his talents for their own ends. And along the way, Axel''s secret only raised more questions for Levi about his past. How had Axel learned to hack? What did he want? And was Axel really who he said he was? Border Hacker is at once an adventure saga-the story of a man who would do anything to return to his family, and the friend who would do anything to help him-and a profound parable about the violence of American immigration policy told through a single, extraordinary life.
About the author
Levi Vonk is a writer, anthropologist, and professor at the University of Virginia. He is usually somewhere between the US South and Mexico.
Axel Kirschner is a hacker and stateless migrant. He grew up in New York but is now in hiding. Axel Kirschner is not his real name.
Summary
An unlikely friendship, a four-thousand-mile voyage, and an impenetrable frontier—this dramatic odyssey reveals the chaos and cruelty US immigration policies have unleashed beyond our borders.
Axel Kirschner was a lifelong New Yorker, all Queens hustle and bravado. But he was also undocumented. After a minor traffic violation while driving his son to kindergarten, Axel was deported to Guatemala, a country he swore he had not lived in since he was a baby. While fighting his way back through Mexico on a migrant caravan, Axel met Levi Vonk, a young anthropologist and journalist from the US. That chance encounter would change both of their lives forever.
Levi soon discovered that Axel was no ordinary migrant. He was harboring a secret: Axel was a hacker. This secret would launch the two friends on a dangerous adventure far beyond what either of them could have imagined. While Axel’s abilities gave him an edge in a system that denied his existence, they would also ensnare him in a tangled underground network of human traffickers, corrupt priests, and anti-government guerillas eager to exploit his talents for their own ends. And along the way, Axel’s secret only raised more questions for Levi about his past. How had Axel learned to hack? What did he want? And was Axel really who he said he was?
Border Hacker is at once an adventure saga—the story of a man who would do anything to return to his family, and the friend who would do anything to help him—and a profound parable about the violence of American immigration policy told through a single, extraordinary life.
