Tears of Salt by Pietro Bartolo
For twenty-five years, Dr. Pietro Bartolo has run the lone medical clinic on the Italian island of Lampedusa. In that time he has rescued, welcomed, and cared for many of the hundreds of thousands of desperate migrants from the Middle East and Africa who have washed up on the island's shores. In this inspiring account of his life and work, Bartolo shares his quiet dignity, unshakable moral center, and inspirational message-We can't and we won't be governed by our fears. The book is filled with Bartolo's unforgettable tales of pain and hope, moving stories of those who didn't make it and those who did. Tears of Salt is both a lasting work of literature and an intimate portrait and fresh perspective on a signal crisis of our time.
"Through DrBartolo we understand that it is impossible to do nothing in the face of such great human need." -- Vanity Fair
"Heart-wrenching and relevant." -- Marion Winik - Minneapolis StarTribune
"Moving [and] impassioned. . . . [Bartolo] has written a powerful condemnation of public inertia to foreign tragedies." -- Publishers Weekly
"At a time when our broken world seems to be encouraging, and lauding, the worst of humanity, along comes the remarkable Dr. Bartolo to show us what courage, integrity, and compassion look like. His life is a manual of what it means to be human." -- Rabih Alameddine
"Tears of Salt is a tender personal memoir of a fisherman’s son turned doctor on the rocky island of Lampedusa, where Dr. Bartolo is at once the savior and the coroner to boatload after boatload of migrants who risk everything to cross the deadly seas. It is also a damning indictment of the broader, collective indifference of humankind to both the drowned and the saved." -- Philip Gourevitch
"Tears of Salt tells the story of people who flee war or poverty in Africa or Asia, survive lethal months and years of travel, then cross the Mediterranean to become the ‘refugees’ we see in the news briefly—if at all. Dr. Bartolo tells us about rescuing everyone he can, burying those he cannot, and saving their stories as if they were his own. This is a personal, urgent, and universal book." -- Gloria Steinem
"Dr. Bartolo’s spare, poignant, angry account of his life as doctor to the refugees arriving on the shores of Italy is an unusual and important addition to the growing literature of migration. Anyone wanting to understand the disaster of what is happening around us should read this book." -- Caroline Moorehead
"There is great hope and poignancy here." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Heart-wrenching and relevant." -- Marion Winik - Minneapolis StarTribune
"Moving [and] impassioned. . . . [Bartolo] has written a powerful condemnation of public inertia to foreign tragedies." -- Publishers Weekly
"At a time when our broken world seems to be encouraging, and lauding, the worst of humanity, along comes the remarkable Dr. Bartolo to show us what courage, integrity, and compassion look like. His life is a manual of what it means to be human." -- Rabih Alameddine
"Tears of Salt is a tender personal memoir of a fisherman’s son turned doctor on the rocky island of Lampedusa, where Dr. Bartolo is at once the savior and the coroner to boatload after boatload of migrants who risk everything to cross the deadly seas. It is also a damning indictment of the broader, collective indifference of humankind to both the drowned and the saved." -- Philip Gourevitch
"Tears of Salt tells the story of people who flee war or poverty in Africa or Asia, survive lethal months and years of travel, then cross the Mediterranean to become the ‘refugees’ we see in the news briefly—if at all. Dr. Bartolo tells us about rescuing everyone he can, burying those he cannot, and saving their stories as if they were his own. This is a personal, urgent, and universal book." -- Gloria Steinem
"Dr. Bartolo’s spare, poignant, angry account of his life as doctor to the refugees arriving on the shores of Italy is an unusual and important addition to the growing literature of migration. Anyone wanting to understand the disaster of what is happening around us should read this book." -- Caroline Moorehead
"There is great hope and poignancy here." -- Kirkus Reviews
Pietro Bartolo was born in Lampedusa to a family of fishermen. He returned to Lampedusa after getting his medical degree, and has been running the island’s lone clinic since 1991. He was featured in Gianfranco Rosi’s celebrated documentary film Fire at Sea, a finalist for the Academy Award. Lidia Tilotta is a journalist with RAI Regional News and Mediterraneo.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780393651287 |
| ISBN 10 | 0393651282 |
| Title | Tears of Salt |
| Author | Pietro Bartolo |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | WW Norton & Co |
| Year published | 2018-09-01 |
| Number of pages | 208 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |