Book Club: The Great Divide by Cristina Henríquez

The Great Divide is a powerful work of historical fiction about the construction of the Panama Canal, casting light on the unsung people who lived, loved, and laboured there. Searing and empathetic, this character-driven novel explores the lives of activists, fishmongers, labourers, journalists, neighbours, and doctors. They are all involved in carving out the canal.

There’s Francisco, a local fisherman who resents the foreign powers clamouring for a slice of his country; his son, Omar, works as a digger in the excavation zone. Ada Bunting is a bold sixteen-year-old from Barbados who arrives in Panama as a stowaway seeking work. John Oswald has dedicated his life to scientific research and has journeyed to Panama in single-minded pursuit of eliminating malaria. Their lives will all intersect at the site of the canal.

Cristina Henríquez is an American whose father came from Panama. She has written a collection of short stories and two other novels, of which the best known is entitled “The Book of Unknown Americans.”

This novel was a suggestion from Monika.