OF WOMEN AND SALT – GABRIELA GARCIA

From nineteenth-century cigar factories to present-day detention centres. From Cuba to the United States to Mexico, Gabriela Garcia’s Of Women and Salt follows Latina women of fierce pride, bound by the stories passed between them. ‘Vivid details, visceral prose and strong willful women’ – Angie Cruz, author of Dominicana Five generations of women are linked by blood and circumstance, by the secrets they share, and by a single book passed down through a family, with an affirmation scrawled in its margins: We are force. We are more than we think we are. 1866, Cuba: Maria Isabel is the only woman employed at a cigar factory. These are dangerous political times, and as Maria begins to see marriage and motherhood as her only options, the sounds of war are approaching. 1959, Cuba: Dolores watches her husband make for the mountains in answer to Fidel Castro’s call to arms. What Dolores knows, though, is that to survive, she must win her own war, and commit an act of violence that threatens to destroy her daughter Carmen’s world. 2016, Miami: Carmen, still wrestling with the trauma of displacement, is shocked when her daughter Jeanette announces her plans to travel to Cuba to see her grandmother Dolores. In the walls of her crumbling home lies a secret, one that will link Jeanette to her past, and to this fearless line of women. Of Women and Salt is a haunting story about the choices of mothers and the tenacity of women who choose to tell their truth despite those who wish to silence them. A multi-generational story that, at its heart, is a tribute to imperfect mother-daughter relationships and the enduring strength of women – Stylist ‘Extraordinary . . . stunning’ – Elizabeth Macneal, author of The Doll Factory