Great Divide
Aoife’s Review:
My first summer read follows a host of characters whose lives converge during the construction of the Panamá Canal. In what felt like a serendipitous moment, this title was the first new release I picked up on my return from my own trip to Panamá.
Having spent three weeks on the banks of the Canal, I was immediately intrigued by ‘The Great Divide’, which centres around this feat of engineering which both transformed global trade and devasted local communities, the legacy of which can still be felt in Panamá today.
Ada Bunting, a bold sixteen-year-old from Barbados, arrives alone in Panama as a stowaway alongside thousands of other West Indians seeking work in the grand building project of the Canal. Francisco, a local fisherman, resents the foreign nations clamouring for a slice of his country, but nothing is more upsetting for him than his son Omar’s decision to work as a digger. For Omar, whose upbringing was quiet and lonely, this job offers a chance to finally find connection and independence.
Scientist John Oswald has come from further afield. He has journeyed to Panama in pursuit of one goal: eliminating malaria. But everything hangs in the balance as his wife Marian falls ill herself.
When John witnesses an act of bravery and compassion from Ada one day, he hires her on the spot as a caregiver for his wife. This fateful decision sets in motion a sweeping tale of ambition, loyalty, and sacrifice. Breathtaking and impossible to put down, The Great Divide explores the lives of the labourers, fishmongers, journalists, protesters, doctors and soothsayers who lived alongside the construction of the Canal – those rarely acknowledged by history even as they carved out its course.
