Description
In conversations with drivers ranging from veterans of foreign wars to Indigenous women protecting one another, Di Cintio explores the borderland of the North American taxi.
“A taxi,” writes Marcello Di Cintio, “is a border.” Under the familiar roof light of every cab is a space both private and public: accessible to all, and yet, once the doors close, strangely intimate—a space in which two strangers who might otherwise never have met share a five or fifty minute trip. Quotidian themselves, taxis transcend everyday barriers between the wealthy and the working class, white people and people of colour, those who give direction and those who follow, those who speak and those who listen—and yet, though driver and fare are close enough to reach out and touch one another, most trips are characterized by complete silence. In a series of interviews with North American taxi drivers, their backgrounds ranging from the Iraqi National Guard, to the Westboro Baptist Church, to an arranged marriage that left one woman stranded in a foreign country, Marcello Di Cintio seeks out those missed conversations, revealing the untold lives of the people who take us where we want to go.
Praise for Marcello Di Cintio
“Di Cintio researches his subjects thoroughly, conducts in depth reporting, and writes with vigour and humility.”—Kamal Al-Solaylee, Quill & Quire
“Di Cintio weaves together history with a sense of place and infuses character with dialogue and humor … masterful.”—Selma Dabbagh, The Electronic Intifada
“Illuminating reading from a highly engaged author.”—Kirkus Reviews
