The Great Divide
Cristina Henriquez's novel is set in 1907 along the construction zone of the Panama Canal, where the American project to slice through the isthmus has drawn tens of thousands of workers from the West Indies, Spain, and the United States. The book moves among many characters, including a Panamanian fisherman, a young Barbadian laborer, an American doctor's daughter, and a woman searching for her sister. Henriquez writes in short chapters that gradually weave these lives together as the canal cuts through their land. The novel keeps its eye on the workers whose names rarely appear in official histories of the canal. The Great Divide is a wide, polyphonic historical novel about labor, empire, and family.
What you might want to know about The Great Divide
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
During the building of the Panama Canal, the lives of workers, fishermen, doctors, and dreamers from many countries collide on the isthmus.
Jenna Bush Hager chose The Great Divide as the March 2024 Read with Jenna selection on the Today Show, describing it as a sweeping, character-driven novel about the building of the Panama Canal and bringing Cristina Henriquez on the program to discuss her research.
Yes. The novel is set during the actual American-led construction of the Panama Canal in the early twentieth century, though the central characters and storylines are fictional.
The Great Divide was written by Cristina Henriquez, published in 2024 by Ecco.
The Great Divide is 352 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Great Divide takes most readers 5 to 8 hours to finish.
The Great Divide is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
