“Of Women and Salt” by Gabriela Garcia was a powerful story telling of the many hardships and constant peril of women immigrants in the United States. The novel is set in Cuba, Miami, Texas, and Mexico and it tells the story of several generations of women and both the will to survive and the desire to make a better life for their families.

Some of the main themes in the novel are obviously immigration, but also domestic abuse, drug abuse, and what it means to be a family and to love those people in your family. The hardest part of this book was the overlapping stories of different generations, it is very hard to follow along with who is who and how each character is related. The main story line is three generations of women: Dolores, the Cuban grandmother, Carmen, a Cuban immigrant and Jeanette, her daughter battling drug addiction.

Ms. Garcia breaks down these interpersonal relationships compared to other relationships in the book, as well as their individual histories of how they got to where they are and why they are what they are. It was a fascinating story told in a unique way.

Get a copy of “Of Women and Salt” by Gabriela Garcia on Amazon here.