The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande

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.

I'll never look at spaghetti the same way again (ikykyk)

The Distance Between Us is a memoir by writer Reyna Grande. Grande tells the story of her childhood in Mexico, as her father illegally enters the US for work; as her mother follows him after years in which he does not return; as Grande's grandmother reluctantly raises Grande and her siblings; as her mother learns her father has a girlfriend in the US and bitterly returns to Mexico; as Grande's mother leaves with a new boyfriend and again abandons the children; as Grande's other, poorer grandmother takes in the children; as her father returns for Grande's siblings and reluctantly agrees to take Grande as well; and as Grande and her siblings adjust to life in the US. The Distance Between Us is one of the most powerful stories I've read this year. I'm still thinking about Grande's poverty in Mexico, about her father's abandonment of the family, and about the difference between Grande's eager embrace of the opportunities available in America and the faltering of her siblings. It's a beautiful, heart-crushing story of gain and loss. At what cost do we leave our home and family?