The Great Divide by Cristina Henriquez

The Great Divide by Cristina Henriquez

A TODAY Show Read With Jenna Book Club Pick!

A powerful novel about the construction of the Panama Canal, casting light on the unsung people who lived, loved, and labored there

It is said that the canal will be the greatest feat of engineering in history. But first, it must be built. For Francisco, a local fisherman who resents the foreign powers clamoring for a slice of his country, nothing is more upsetting than the decision of his son, Omar, to work as a digger in the excavation zone. But for Omar, whose upbringing was quiet and lonely, this job offers a chance to finally find connection.

Ada Bunting is a bold sixteen-year-old from Barbados who arrives in Panama as a stowaway alongside thousands of other West Indians seeking work. Alone and with no resources, she is determined to find a job that will earn enough money for her ailing sister's surgery. When she sees a young man--Omar--who has collapsed after a grueling shift, she is the only one who rushes to his aid.

John Oswald has dedicated his life to scientific research and has journeyed to Panama in single-minded pursuit of one goal: eliminating malaria. But now, his wife, Marian, has fallen ill herself, and when he witnesses Ada's bravery and compassion, he hires her on the spot as a caregiver. This fateful decision sets in motion a sweeping tale of ambition, loyalty, and sacrifice. 

Searing and empathetic, The Great Divide explores the intersecting lives of activists, fishmongers, laborers, journalists, neighbors, doctors, and soothsayers--those rarely acknowledged by history even as they carved out its course.

Named a Most Anticipated Book By:  Washington Post * Book Riot * Electric Literature * LitHub * ELLE * The Millions * Goodreads * Reader's Digest

Cristina Henrquez is the author of the novella Come Together, Fall Apart: A Novella and Tales, as well as the upcoming novel The World In Half. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Oxford American, while Preservation, and her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Glimmer Train, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, and AGNI. She was named one of Fiction's New Luminaries by Virginia Quarterly Review, and she is the recipient of the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation Prize, which was established by Sandra Cisneros in honor of her father. She graduated from Northwestern University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She and her spouse live in Chicago.