Of Women and Salt

By Gabriela Garcia and Gabriela Garcia

Book Overview

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
THE WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK OF 2021
A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK

WINNER of the Isabel Allende Most Inspirational Fiction Award - International Latino Book Awards - WINNER of
Best Literary Fiction - She Reads Best of 2021 Awards - FINALIST for the 2022 Southern Book Prize - LONGLISTED for Crook's Corner Book Prize - NOMINEE for 2021 Goodreads Choice Award in Debut Novel and Historical Fiction

A sweeping, masterful debut about a daughter's fateful choice, a mother motivated by her own past, and a family legacy that begins in Cuba before either of them were born

In present-day Miami, Jeanette is battling addiction. Daughter of Carmen, a Cuban immigrant, she is determined to learn more about her family history from her reticent mother and makes the snap decision to take in the daughter of a neighbor detained by ICE. Carmen, still wrestling with the trauma of displacement, must process her difficult relationship with her own mother while trying to raise a wayward Jeanette. Steadfast in her quest for understanding, Jeanette travels to Cuba to see her grandmother and reckon with secrets from the past destined to erupt.

From 19th-century cigar factories to present-day detention centers, from Cuba to Mexico, Gabriela Garcia's Of Women and Salt is a kaleidoscopic portrait of betrayals--personal and political, self-inflicted and those done by others--that have shaped the lives of these extraordinary women. A haunting meditation on the choices of mothers, the legacy of the memories they carry, and the tenacity of women who choose to tell their stories despite those who wish to silence them, this is more than a diaspora story; it is a story of America's most tangled, honest, human roots.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1250776708
• ISBN13: 9781250776709
• Release Date: January 2022
• Publisher: Flatiron Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Hated Jeanette, loved her grandmother.

This book is about generational trauma. It starts off with Jeanette's grandmother's story, which was my favorite. The rest of the book goes between Carmen and Jeanette, daughter and granddaughter. I got triggered by the drug use in this book (my brother got addicted to drugs) so watch out for that, if it's something that upsets you. I don't find the other two very likeable/sympathetic, it just feels like bad decision after bad decision. Wish the grandmother could have had her own book! This book isn't one to write home about because the characters aren't likeable enough and it's a bit tragic. I've loved tragic stories before and read other books about generational trauma, this one just isn't very good.