In Continental Divide, photojournalist Krista Schlyer illustrates the situation at the U.S./Mexico border through both words and photographs. The first few chapters contain vivid prose and breathtaking photography depicting the natural landscape of the region. The book goes on to describe the groups of people who have inhabited the area and ends with a discussion of U.S. border policy.

I absolutely loved the first few chapters of the book. Schlyer describes the natural world with such reverence and awe that it left me longing to visit the region. Desert life had evolved brilliantly to persist through long periods of drought and then make the most of the brief periods of rainfall. I loved reading about the saguaro cactus, creosote, and desert wildflowers. The photographs of the wildlife and geologic features add immensely to the words on the page.

Of course it isn't all scenic landscapes and beautiful sunsets in the borderlands. The latter part of the book deals with what is happening to this land, the wildlife, and the people as a result of the border wall and US policy. Sections of the border wall cut through wildlife preserves, disrupting migration patterns and isolating animal populations from one another. People that could move across the border freely for generations in these remote areas can no longer do so. The photographs in the latter part of the book also become very sad. Ugly walls cutting through pristine wilderness, memorials and graves for all the migrants that died in the desert, it was just all really sad.

I realize that immigration policy is a very complicated and controversial issue, but I think that Schlyer puts it well in the last few pages of her book, stating the people who talk the loudest are often asking the wrong questions. It isn't about how to keep people out, but how to share a border with a country with such a different economic reality, and how to respect the beauty of the natural landscape so that both countries can benefit. No easy answers to any of these questions. ( )