One day a few years ago 300 migrants were kidnapped between the remote desert towns of Altar Mexico & Sasabe Arizona A local priest got 120 released many with broken ankles & other marks of abuse but the rest vanished Oscar Martinez a young writer from El Salvador was in Altar soon after the abduction & his account of the migrant disappearances is only one of the harrowing stories he garnered from two years spent traveling up & down the migrant trail from Central America & across the US border More than a quarter of a million Central Americans make this increasingly dangerous journey each year & each year as many as 20000 of them are kidnapped Martinez writes in powerful unforgettable prose about clinging to the tops of freight trains; finding respite work & hardship in shelters & brothels; & riding shotgun with the border patrol Illustrated with stunning full-color photographs The Beast is the first book to shed light on the harsh new reality of the migrant trail in the age of the narcotraficantes