Amexica is a street-level portrait of the extraordinary terror unfolding along the U.S.-Mexico border--"a country in its own right, which belongs to both the United States and Mexico, yet neither"--as the narco-war escalates to a fever pitch. In 2009, after reporting from the border for many years, journalist Ed Vulliamy traveled the frontier from the Pacific coast to the Gulf of Mexico, from Tijuana to Matamoros, a kaleidoscopic landscape of corruption and all-out civil war, but also of beauty and joy and resilience. He describes in detail how the narco gangs work; the smuggling of people, weapons, and drugs back and forth across the border; middle-class flight from Mexico and an American celebrity culture that is feeding the violence; the interrelated economies of drugs and the maquiladora factories; and the ruthless, systematic murder of young women in Ciudad Juarez. Heroes, villains, and victims all come to life in this singular book.--From publisher description.