Do they Know I'm Running by David Corbett

This novel was last month's selection for my book club.  I would never have chosen it otherwise but I liked it - one of the benefits of being in a book club.  The story is about a young man named Roque whose illegal uncle is deported back to El Salvador.  Roque travels to El Salvador to bring his uncle through Mexico and smuggle him over the U.S. border. 
 Along the way, he meets a young woman named Lupe and an army pal of his cousin's named Samir, both of whom travel with him and his uncle. The trip is not easy, and Roque and his companions meet with much adversity along the way, including gangs, bribery, and violence.  The people they have paid to assist in bringing his uncle back turn out to be extremely dangerous, and even among the four travelers, there are vastly differing values and priorities.  On the other side of the border, his family is facing difficulties as well: his cousins become involved in some criminal activities that are distantly related to Roque's trip, and suddenly find themselves in deeper than they expected. 

I'm surprised this book wasn't more widely acclaimed.  There were a few sections where (as someone in my book club said) I had trouble connecting to the book.  However, I stuck with it, and despite those hiccups, Corbett managed the balance of the elements of the book very well.  The plot moved at a quick pace while each character was given an extensive background and set of motivations.  The scenery and locations from El Salvador through Guatemala and Mexico and into the U.S., were excellently depicted.  The action that occurred in many scenes was well-described without being a play-by-play.  And even the minor characters were detailed enough to keep them fresh in my mind when they were dormant for several chapters.

What Corbett has written, however, is not just a well-balanced novel but a political statement on immigration.  Someone looking to make that statement more strongly ought to option the movie rights because this would translate exceptionally well onto the silver screen.