A TODAY Show Read With Jenna Book Club Pick! A powerful novel about the construction of the
Panama Canal casting light on the unsung people who lived loved and labored there It is said
that the canal will be the greatest feat of engineering in history. But first it must be
built. For Francisco a local fisherman who resents the foreign powers clamoring for a slice of
his country nothing is more upsetting than the decision of his son Omar to work as a digger
in the excavation zone. But for Omar whose upbringing was quiet and lonely this job offers a
chance to finally find connection. Ada Bunting is a bold sixteen-year-old from Barbados who
arrives in Panama as a stowaway alongside thousands of other West Indians seeking work. Alone
and with no resources she is determined to find a job that will earn enough money for her
ailing sister’s surgery. When she sees a young man—Omar—who has collapsed after a grueling
shift she is the only one who rushes to his aid. John Oswald has dedicated his life to
scientific research and has journeyed to Panama in single-minded pursuit of one goal:
eliminating malaria. But now his wife Marian has fallen ill herself and when he witnesses
Ada’s bravery and compassion he hires her on the spot as a caregiver. This fateful decision
sets in motion a sweeping tale of ambition loyalty and sacrifice. Searing and empathetic
The Great Divide explores the intersecting lives of activists fishmongers laborers
journalists neighbors doctors and soothsayers—those rarely acknowledged by history even as
they carved out its course. Named a Most Anticipated Book By: Washington Post * Book Riot *
Electric Literature * LitHub * ELLE * The Millions * Goodreads * Reader’s Digest
