Of Women and Salt: A Novel
Written by Gabriela Garcia
Narrated by Frankie Corzo
4/5
()
About this audiobook
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK
This program includes a bonus conversation between the author and Roxane Gay.
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.
A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books
"Of Women and Salt is a fierce and powerful debut. Garcia wields narrative power, cultivating true and profound work on migration, legacy, and survival."--Terese Marie Mailhot, bestselling author of Heart Berries
“Gabriela Garcia captures the lives of Cuban women in a world to which they refuse to surrender and she does so with precision and generosity and beauty.”--Roxane Gay, bestselling author of Hunger and Bad Feminist
"[A] beautifully evocative first novel...This book is shaped, and given buoyancy, by Garcia’s sharp prose and by Jeanette’s ability to continue believing that the unexpected is possible, even as it repeatedly fails to materialize." —New York Times Book Review
Editor's Note
Most anticipated of 2021…
The novel “Of Women and Salt” is on what feels like every list of 2021’s most anticipated books. If that’s not enough to get you to read it, Roxane Gay selected it as one of her Audacious Book Club’s picks, and writes, “Gabriela Garcia captures the lives of Cuban women in a world to which they refuse to surrender and she does so with precision and generosity and beauty.” A moving story of multiple generations of mothers and daughters, immigration, and the sacrifices each generation makes for the next.
Gabriela Garcia
Gabriela Garcia is a fiction writer, poet, and journalist. After completing an MFA in fiction from Purdue, she received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award and served as the 2018 writer-in-residence for Sarabande Books. Her work has been selected for publication in Best American Poetry 2019. She is the daughter of immigrants from Mexico and Cuba and grew up in Miami.
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Reviews for Of Women and Salt
198 ratings13 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A beautiful portrait of Cuba and the women who come from the island.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Complex and fascinating characters. I was drawn in completely, and couldn't stop listening.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This novel and all its varying voices was a true delight. It kept me on my toes the whole way. I didn’t see the ending coming and was sad when it was over. Short and sweet. Perfect.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Definitely interesting, hearing the different stories was nice and just how they intertwine. The ending was ehhh. Short read and it was great to hear some history of Cuba.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I enjoy reading books about other immigrants experiences. I liked that the major characters were all women. The narrator did a great job ??
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It’s definitely not a binge-reading book despite it being short. I loved the prose, very lyrical in a way.
Garcia does a great job at weaving a story that are somehow intertwined regardless of generation or culture.
I loved how every narrative is from a women. They all suffered trauma in different ways yet none of it is put down — they are all equal in hurt.
I loved that she starts the story with a letter and finishes it with the same narration (in sorts). To me that represented how even though regret and sorrow brews throughout ones life, it can still give hope to others and redemption to oneself.
I will say, this is one of the best #immigration #BIPOC #PCP novel this year, especially one among the best I’ve read throughout the past couple of years that weren’t non-fiction!
Overall: 4.5 stars rounded to 5 - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Maybe this is a book that should be read, not listened to. I found the movement through time and place as well as the sheer variety of characters quite difficult to follow. In the interview with the author at the end the author points out that this movement is a key feature of the book. I expected something a bit more linear. She also explained that each chapter started out as a short story and after she received her MFA she decided to weave the stories together into a novel with women as the primary voices. In my opinion the weaving was unsuccessful. She should have just published a collection of short stories.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The stories are captivating! I recommend this book for guys as well !
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Not sure why this book is surrounded with so much hype. To me, a disjointed series of vignettes about several generations of Cuban/American women. Each has their own difficulties but we clearly are told of the evil immigration authorities. Thought American Dirt did a better job in that area. This book is well written but, in the end, felt like several short stories stitched together.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This was a great audiobook. I think that I could really tell that this began as more of a short story collection and I wish that some threads had been tighter but overall great!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent narrative, and even though book was a bit slow at the begging, it really picks up and I was super sad that I finished it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The author was able to adroitly avoid the trap of lumping immigrants into one or two tropes. There are so many stories/perspectives/reasons for leaving one’s homeland. The voice of each of these women, the time frame of each life and the secrets each of them keeps from one generation the next creates an incredible tapestry of their experiences. Beautifully written. Can’t wait to hear more from this young author!
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Abrupt ending. No resolution of several story lines . .