The Great Divide
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- ¥1,500
発行者による作品情報
‘A gorgeous, sweeping epic’ ANN NAPOLITANO
'A master of prose' WASHINGTON POST
‘One of my favourite writers' ROXANE GAY
‘Spectacular’ JOANNE SEFTON
‘I didn’t want it to end’ SARA SHERIDAN
A breathtaking historical novel following the incredible construction of the Panama Canal and casting light on the unsung people who lived and laboured in its shadow – by acclaimed author Cristina Henríquez.
It is said that the Canal will be the greatest feat of engineering in history. But first, it must be built.
Ada Bunting, a bold sixteen-year-old from Barbados, arrives alone in Panama as a stowaway alongside thousands of other West Indians seeking work in the grand building project of the Canal. Francisco, a local fisherman, resents the foreign nations clamouring for a slice of his country, but nothing is more upsetting for him than his son Omar’s decision to work as a digger. For Omar, whose upbringing was quiet and lonely, this job offers a chance to finally find connection and independence. Scientist John Oswald has come from further afield. He has journeyed to Panama in pursuit of one goal: eliminating malaria. But everything hangs in the balance as his wife Marian falls ill herself.
When John witnesses an act of bravery and compassion from Ada one day, he hires her on the spot as a caregiver for his wife. This fateful decision sets in motion a sweeping tale of ambition, loyalty, and sacrifice.
Breathtaking and impossible to put down, The Great Divide explores the lives of the labourers, fishmongers, journalists, protesters, doctors and soothsayers who lived alongside the construction of the Canal – those rarely acknowledged by history even as they carved out its course.
'Henríquez writes gorgeously, creating indelible characters whom you’ll never want to leave' Justin Torres, author of Blackouts
‘A masterful weaving together of different lives… I can't stop thinking about it’ Hester Musson, author of The Beholders
‘Henríquez writes beautifully … Stunning’ Haleh Agar, author of Out of Touch
About the author
Cristina Henríquez is the author of The Book of Unknown Americans. It was also longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Henríquez is also the author of The World In Half and Come Together, Fall Apart: A Novella and Stories. 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The enthralling latest from Henríquez (The Book of Unknown Americans) tells the stories of migrant laborers, locals, and others affected by the Panama Canal project in 1907. Born and bred in Panama City, Francisco Aquino is a proud fisherman. His headstrong teenage son Omar yearns for more than his father's predictable life at sea, however, and gets hired at Culebra Cut, a notoriously difficult labor site, where he works to dig the canal alongside Barbadians, Jamaicans, and Haitians. Francisco, who calls the Americans "enemy invaders" for building the canal and harbors resentment over U.S. intervention in Panama's 1903 separatist movement, disapproves. There's also 16-year-old Ada Bunting, who arrives from Barbados to work as a washer woman so she can send money to help her sister, who has pneumonia. Her story is linked with that of Tennessee scientist John Oswald, who comes to Panama to study tropical diseases with his wife Marian, who contracts pneumonia and is cared for by Ada. Meanwhile, the residents of the southern town of Gatun learn that their community has been earmarked as the site of the canal's dam. The author delves deeply into themes of colonialism and labor exploitation, showing how the men take quinine daily to ward off tropical diseases while an American foreman rules over their worksite with an iron fist. Henríquez's pitch-perfect novel has the feel of a classic.
