Overview

In 1924, at Brooklyn's Kings County Hospital, Ruby del Palacio delivers a blue baby weeks early. The baby girl dies for want of oxygen. Within a year, Ruby delivers another baby girl named Alice. Gradually realizing that her sole role in the del Palacio household is to conceive, deliver, and nurse babies, trapped by societal expectations in a time of limited women's rights and rampant injustices, Ruby summons the courage to sue for a legal separation from her Colombian husband, Juan. Her efforts are met with a counter lawsuit, resulting in Juan being granted custody of their six children. Months later, he flees the state with the children, leaving Ruby abandoned and bereft. Decades later, Alice embarks on a journey to find her long-lost mother. It is only when a dear friend imparts a profound revelation to Alice, explaining that forgiveness necessitates relinquishing all hope for a different past, that Alice finds the strength to accept her history. Across the Narrows unravels as a sweeping family saga, centered around a tragedy that shapes the del Palacio family's destiny and leaves little room for forgiveness. With themes of love, loss, and resilience, this poignant novel explores the transformative power of forgiveness and the pursuit of one's own identity in the face of adversity.

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Reviews

"""A mother and daughter are ripped apart in Burns' novel of family strife. It's 1924 in New York City when Ruby Farrar del Palacio gives birth to her sixth child, a beautiful little girl-but the baby, who will be named Faith, dies during delivery. When Ruby's Colombia-born husband, Juan, finally arrives at the hospital, Ruby narrates, ""His face revealed not even a hint of kindness. Or sadness."" His indifference sets the stage for the sad narrative. Ruby decides that Faith will be her last child, but a year later she has another daughter, named Alice. Ruby and Juan, whose families are prominent in Brooklyn society, are locked in a loveless marriage. By 1930, Ruby knows she can no longer live with her dismissive, authoritarian husband, nor abide her judgmental mother-in-law, who regularly descends upon the del Palacio household to manage it as she sees fit. Confident in her decision-their large Brooklyn home is in her name, a wedding present from her parents-she tells Juan she's filing for separation.He smirks, predicting she'll wind up on a bread line; Ruby has no idea of the cruel lengths to which Juan will go to exact his revenge. Alternating chapters follow the stories of Ruby and Alice, a mother and daughter separated from one another for almost half a century. Ruby narrates her own tale in a voice filled with pain and melancholy, but also sharp wit. Once Alice's story begins to dominate the novel, significant portions of Ruby's life remain a mystery for lengthy passages of time. Alice's life, affected by the longing and anger that set in when she was a young child denied the comfort of her mother, unspools through third-person narration, which is compelling but emotionally less dramatic than Ruby's. Burns is a skillful wordsmith who vividly captures the details of the social milieu and extraordinary legal misogyny of the period. Despite an accumulation of tragedies that stray across the line into melodrama, Burns has delivered an addictive read. Poignant and engaging, with strong female characters."" - Kirkus Reviews"

Author Information

A finalist for the 2023 Spur Award for contemporary fiction for her debut novel, Blind Eye, Martha Burns earned a Doctor of Letters with distinction from Drew University and won the Faulkner-Wisdom Gold Medal for short story. After having lived and worked in Hawaii, New Jersey, California, and Switzerland, Martha and her husband returned to live in their home state of New Mexico.MarthaBurnsWriter.com

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