A moving multigenerational novel about the enduring power of a mother’s love, the ripple effect of secrets, and the strength of family bonds from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mirta Ojito. One hundred years after the shipwreck of the Valbanera, known to history as the “poor man’s Titanic,” Mara Denis gets an assignment to report on the Canary Islands, where, she has been told, her ancestors lived before they moved to Cuba. Unexpectedly, she discovers that the grandmother her mother cherished was listed among the dead of the Valbanera, years before Mara’s mother was even born. This fateful twist changes everything Mara thought she knew about her family and herself, and sends her on a quest to find the truth about her family. If her great grandmother is a ghost, who is she and where did she come from? In spare, beautiful writing and in a dual narrative, the author transports the reader to the Canary Islands and Cuba in the early part of the twentieth century and New York and Key West in the present. This epic tale of a young woman’s intense passion for her beloved as well as the redeeming power of family secrets at last uncovered will leave readers wanting more when they reach the last page.
