But for a novelist and a ghost, Anita might be one of the hundreds of migrant children still separated from her family after crossing the border. GIRL IN A CAGE is a novel of hope for our time about journeys—replete with danger and confinement—to find personal freedom. After a novelist moves to Kansas in 2018, she is visited by a ghost who wants her to rescue a young Mexican immigrant girl he saw with a brutish man; all the while, the girl's deported mother awaits any word of her daughter. Five main characters intersect and cross boundaries of different types: between nations, between life and the world of spirits, between truth and fiction, freedom and entrapment. Ana López de Domínguez and her daughter Anita migrate from Mexico, the gambler Jack Collins becomes entangled in juvenile sex trafficking, and Antoine Benet is transformed into a ghost who enlists novelist Claire Schmidt’s help to liberate Anita. "GIRL IN A CAGE is a refreshing contemporary tale . . . there's much to love and enjoy throughout Schumm's story."--The BookLife Prize 2020