This is a multi-generational journey of 5 generations of a family from the 1800’s to the late 2000’s. It also intersects with another family, a mother and daughter from El Salvador. It is set between Cuba to Miami and also a detention centre in Texas, USA. These women’s lives eventually come together in unexpected ways.
Each chapter is from a different woman and so it gives different perspectives. It may be confusing in the beginning, but I have to mention that in front of the book there’s a family tree which I scribbled my own notes to help me keep up with the story and the back-and-forth between each story. This can be frustrating for other readers – it wasn’t for me as I enjoy historical fiction so I was really into it. This book is mainly about women, mother daughter relationships, the difficult decisions that women make for their own lives and safety, and their children ending up not understanding. Gabriela showed the women dealing with their own challenges very well, it was gentle and I found it to be executed effortlessly.
The women were flawed, not perfect in any way, they were genuine in their views and the author really got that part right about making sure the characters were fierce, fearless, vulnerable, strong, and one was transported into their actual feelings of fear, worry, challenges and longing for freedom from their different battles. She displayed the various journeys from feelings of displacement, pride, immigration and privilege. I enjoyed how Carmen didn’t feel nostalgic towards Cuba, which is what some books on immigration touch on mostly.
The chapters could have actually been short-stories of the women and the book would have still worked out. Like “Of Women and Salt and other stories” type of thing, but they tie up beautifully at the end. How the different chapters flowed from one woman’s story into the next one was solid for me. I love the inscription that was written in the book that was passed down from generation to generation: “We are force. We are more than we think we are.” This will stay with me, always.
I wish the book had touched more on the historical fiction in terms of the political movements and the war, at some point I was glad though that Gabriela didn’t focus so much on the men and the history but it would have helped for the historical part of it. There was some research done on the revolution – I appreciated that at least.
This book makes you see the past forces that influence our lives in the future. It portrayed women in a way I enjoyed and I hope a lot of people will also enjoy it. It was my first time in a long time following a story on Latina women, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the audiobook via Scribd as well. If that is your thing, read the paperback and listen to the brilliantly narrated audiobook.
Thank you to the Panmacmillan SA team for my copy of this book.
