Welcome to “Off the Shelf,” a new monthly feature on literature. Unlike our regular book coverage, which spotlights Western North Carolina authors, “Off the Shelf” gives local readers the chance to recommend any title — regardless of the author’s connection to the area. I’ll be launching the feature, but be on the lookout next month for our first community-based book recommendation.
Now let us begin.
Cristina Henríquez‘s 2024 work of literary fiction, The Great Divide, has everything I’ve been looking for in a book — a historic setting (the construction of the Panama Canal), a large cast of characters (Panamanians, emigrants, youths, an aging fisherman, a soothsayer) and a slow but steady intertwining of storylines told through rotating perspectives. What binds all the characters, it seems, is a shared longing for purpose and connection.
One of my favorite experiences in reading this book is the way — on multiple occasions — Henríquez brings readers back to a previous scene, often several chapters later. In each instance, she’s coming at the moment from a new perspective, closing a loop you did not realize you were circling until that very instant. The experience is close to magical.
Her characters are both stubborn and generous; the setting is rich and detailed. There is also plenty of humor throughout, as well as heartbreak and moments of shock.
A final note: Throughout The Great Divide, Henríquez takes occasional, brief detours, wherein she looks to the future, revealing the fates of some of the novel’s secondary characters. These glimpses create a powerful effect, reminding readers that while her book may be focused on a specific cast of characters, there are so many other stories out there — stories that time simply will never allow us to fully know but that are equally as epic as the ones we happen upon.
One of my favorite lines from the novel comes when the character Francisco, a native fisherman opposed to the canal’s construction, is reflecting on his marriage: “It was possible, Francisco would think later, that every human being only gets a certain allotment of joy and theirs had come in a windfall, the entirety of it used up across those nine glorious months.”
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