Book of the Month
THE GREAT DIVIDE
Author: Cristina Henriquez
Publisher: Harper
ISBN: 0063385333 / 978-0063385337
SUMMARY:
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
About the Author:
Cristina Henríquez is the author of The Great Divide, The Book of Unknown Americans, The World In Half, and Come Together, Fall Apart: A Novella and Stories. She has been longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Real Simple, The Oxford American, The American Scholar, and elsewhere. She earned her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She lives in Illinois.
Website: https://www.cristinahenriquez.com/
Conversations Book
LOVE(LY) CHILD
Author: Emanuel Xavier
Publisher: Queer Mojo
ISBN: 1608642747 / ISBN-13: 978-1608642748
SUMMARY:
“”Violence was an artform.” Thus writes poet Emanuel Xavier about growing up while fiercely witnessing and surviving the terrorism that lurks in the family, the streets, and sexual encounters. In Love(ly) Child – his most powerful work yet – anger cuts through memory and propriety as he methodically dismantles cultural platitudes: love, care, safety, and innocence. Specters of family brokenness, colonialism, desolate cityscapes, outlaw love, and AIDS haunt these poems. Here DEI stands for “disenfranchise, exclude, and ignore,” and death hovers over these poems like the stillness of a quiet city night that is always vanquished by the hope of dawn. In Love(ly) Child, Xavier reminds us that as dire as our pasts may be, “Compassion is our only inheritance/ bold to love what we cannot hold.” -Michael Bronski
“In ‘Autonomous’ the poet writes, “Maybe I lived too fast & my soul / is as old as my presence is young.” This book is indeed the work of an old soul, of the writer as Witness, as the “dream for all our angels who never had this/moment.” The poems wrestle with issues of race, sex, trauma, and survival while growing up an abused queer brown kid in New York. But there are also joys here, found in close friendships, chosen family, and memory. Stunning, raw, and beautiful, Love(ly) Child continues Emanuel Xavier’s remarkable career as poetic truth teller.” -Reginald Harris
“Xavier’s fierce verses blaze across the page like a Willi Ninja duckwalk! These words Dip, Pop, Loft and Spin in the Nuyorican poetry tradition, letting the reader know that this griot speaks truth, always representing for la gente! Pa’lante!” -Shaggy Flores, Author of Obatala’s Bugalu: A Nuyorican Book of Sights and Sounds
Born in Brooklyn, Emanuel Xavier lives in New York City. One of the first openly queer spoken word poets to emerge from the Nuyorican Poets Café slam scene, he helped open the doors for LGBTQ+ poets of color to take centerstage and speak their truths.
About the Author:
Emanuel Xavier is author of the poetry books Pier Queen, Americano, If Jesus Were Gay, Nefarious, Radiance, Selected Poems of Emanuel Xavier, and Love(ly) Child(shortlisted for a 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry). He is recipient of a New York City Council Citation and a Gay City Impact Award for his many contributions to NYC arts culture. His books have been finalists for International Latino Book Awards and Lambda Literary Awards and his work has appeared in Poetry, A Gathering of the Tribes, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. He is on the Board of The Publishing Triangle and lives with his husband in Staten Island, NY. www.emanuelxavier.org
Website: www.emanuelxavier.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PierQueenProductions/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emanuelxavier/
