Coyotes: A Journey Across Borders with America's Illegal Migrants

This first title in the Vintage Departures series (""devoted to exploring the vastness of the world, of one's life, or even of one's own backyard'') focuses on the world of illegal aliens. Conover, author of Rolling Nowhere, posed as an immigrant, crossing the border twice and learning first-hand about ``coyotes''those who sneak Mexicans and other Latin Americans across the border, often under murderous conditions. Menaced by hoods, arrested, freed, forced to dodge spotter planes, Conover spent a year, as he puts it, ``working, drinking, smoking, driving, sleeping, sweating and shivering with Mexicans.'' His conclusion: ``It is urgent that we know more about these people who ask little more than to wash our dishes, vacuum our cars, and pick our fruit.'' This well-written, anecdotal account offers an intimate glimpse of the United States from a perspective few citizens are aware of. (September)