Amid the Alien Corn

The author of two much-prized non-fiction books, The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed and The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, John Vaillant writes his first work of fiction with assurance and savoir-faire. He has not picked an easy subject or form. The Jaguar’s Children is set in contemporary Mexico, a country with more than a few embattled cultures and histories. As if Mexico’s vast palimpsest were not challenging enough, Vaillant has imprisoned his two protagonists in a water truck’s empty tank. Along with 15 other Mexicans who are trying to cross the border into the United States, they have been abandoned in the sealed tank by their “coyotes,” the smugglers to whom they have paid large sums. Now, crowded amid urine, feces, vomit, prayers and panic, they face extreme heat and cold, hunger, dehydration and, barring a miracle, almost certain death.

Upping the ante even more, one of Vaillant’s heroes, a...