The Distance Between Us
A Memoir
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4.7 • 209 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
In this inspirational and unflinchingly honest memoir, acclaimed author Reyna Grande describes her childhood torn between the United States and Mexico, and shines a light on the experiences, fears, and hopes of those who choose to make the harrowing journey across the border.
Reyna Grande vividly brings to life her tumultuous early years in this “compelling...unvarnished, resonant” (BookPage) story of a childhood spent torn between two parents and two countries. As her parents make the dangerous trek across the Mexican border to “El Otro Lado” (The Other Side) in pursuit of the American dream, Reyna and her siblings are forced into the already overburdened household of their stern grandmother. When their mother at last returns, Reyna prepares for her own journey to “El Otro Lado” to live with the man who has haunted her imagination for years, her long-absent father.
Funny, heartbreaking, and lyrical, The Distance Between Us poignantly captures the confusion and contradictions of childhood, reminding us that the joys and sorrows we experience are imprinted on the heart forever, calling out to us of those places we first called home.
Also available in Spanish as La distancia entre nosotros.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Award-winning novelist (Across a Hundred Mountains) Grande captivates and inspires in her memoir. Raised in Mexico in brutal poverty during the 1980s, four-year-old Grande and her two siblings lived with their cruel grandmother after both parents departed for the U.S. in search of work. Grande deftly evokes the searing sense of heartache and confusion created by their parents' departure. Eight years later her father returned and reluctantly agreed to take his children to the States. Yet life on the other side of the border was not what Grande imagined: her father's new girlfriend's indifference to the three children becomes more than apparent. Though Grande's father continually stressed the importance of his children obtaining an education, his drinking resulted in violence, abuse, and family chaos. Surrounded by family turmoil, Grande discovered a love of writing and found solace in library books, and she eventually graduated from high school and went on to become the first person in her family to graduate from college. Tracing the complex and tattered relationships binding the family together, especially the bond she shared with her older sister, the author intimately probes her family's history for clues to its disintegration. Recounting her story without self-pity, she gracefully chronicles the painful results of a family shattered by repeated separations and traumas
Customer Reviews
Heart wrenching reality
This book shows the depths of despair along with the never failing love of a family burdened with the challenges of poverty and separation. I found myself cheering for the successes of Reyna Grande and praying that her unvarnished recounting of her life will make a difference to other Mexican Americans searching for the truth. Moved my heart!
Eye opening
Beautifully written book and gave me a very different perspective on immigration. Great read
Poignant truth
I’ve sent this title to several friends who will appreciate her story of family, of desperation and of self. Although I’m not Latina, I can relate to her experiences because I grew up in a Mexican neighborhood on the waterfront in Houston, TX. Many of my friends had similar experiences and shared their stories and lives with me. I love Mexican culture and the way most everything revolves around family. This book is one which any person who has ever wanted to strengthen our southern borders should read. Anyone that thinks it’s okay to separate children from their parents at the border should be made to read. Her voice is one I will read again and belongs with my other favorite Chingonas.