Overview

Situated more than one hundred miles off Italy’s southern coast, the rocky island of Lampedusa has hit world headlines in recent years as the first port of call for hundreds of thousands of African and Middle Eastern refugees fleeing civil war and terrorism and hoping to make a new life in Europe. Dr. Pietro Bartolo, who runs the lone medical clinic on the island, has been caring for many of them—both the living and the dead—for a quarter century. Tears of Salt is Dr. Bartolo’s moving account of his life and work set against one of the signal crises of our time. With quiet dignity and an unshakable moral center, he tells unforgettable tales of pain and hope, stories of those who didn’t make it and those who did.

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9780393356557

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Reviews

Dr. Bartolo's spare, poignant, angry account of his life as doctor to the refugees arriving on the shores of Italy is an unusual and important addition to the growing literature of migration. Anyone wanting to understand the disaster of what is happening around us should read this book. -- Caroline Moorehead Tears of Salt tells the story of people who flee war or poverty in Africa and Asia, survive lethal months and years of travel, then cross the Mediterranean to become the `refugees' we see in the news briefly-if at all. Dr. Bartolo tells us about rescuing everyone he can, burying those he cannot, and saving their stories as if they were his own. This is a personal, urgent, and universal book. -- Gloria Steinem At a time when our broken world seems to be encouraging, and lauding, the worst of humanity, along comes the remarkable Dr. Bartolo to show us what courage, integrity, and compassion look like. His life is a manual of what it means to be human. -- Rabih Alameddine Equal parts memoir, celebration of [Lampedusa] and report from the front. Above all, though, it is a plea for compassion. -- Edward Morris - BookPage Through Dr. Bartolo we understand that it is impossible to do nothing in the face of such great human need. -- Vanity Fair Poignant. -- Uzodinma Iweala - New York Times Book Review Heart-wrenching and relevant. -- Marion Winik - Minneapolis Star Tribune A work not to be missed.... [Bartolo] limns his narrative with great compassion and humanity. -- Marjorie Kehe - Christian Science Monitor Tears of Salt is a tender personal memoir.... It is also a damning indictment of the broader, collective indifference of humankind to both the drowned and the saved. -- Philip Gourevitch

There is great hope and poignancy here. -- Kirkus Reviews Dr. Bartolo's spare, poignant, angry account of his life as doctor to the refugees arriving on the shores of Italy is an unusual and important addition to the growing literature of migration. Anyone wanting to understand the disaster of what is happening around us should read this book. -- Caroline Moorehead Tears of Salt tells the story of people who flee war or poverty in Africa or Asia, survive lethal months and years of travel, then cross the Mediterranean to become the `refugees' we see in the news briefly-if at all. Dr. Bartolo tells us about rescuing everyone he can, burying those he cannot, and saving their stories as if they were his own. This is a personal, urgent, and universal book. -- Gloria Steinem Tears of Salt is a tender personal memoir of a fisherman's son turned doctor on the rocky island of Lampedusa, where Dr. Bartolo is at once the savior and the coroner to boatload after boatload of migrants who risk everything to cross the deadly seas. It is also a damning indictment of the broader, collective indifference of humankind to both the drowned and the saved. -- Philip Gourevitch At a time when our broken world seems to be encouraging, and lauding, the worst of humanity, along comes the remarkable Dr. Bartolo to show us what courage, integrity, and compassion look like. His life is a manual of what it means to be human. -- Rabih Alameddine Moving [and] impassioned. . . . [Bartolo] has written a powerful condemnation of public inertia to foreign tragedies. -- Publishers Weekly Heart-wrenching and relevant. -- Marion Winik - Minneapolis StarTribune Through Dr. Bartolo we understand that it is impossible to do nothing in the face of such great human need. -- Vanity Fair

""Tears of Salt is a tender personal memoir.… It is also a damning indictment of the broader, collective indifference of humankind to both the drowned and the saved."" -- Philip Gourevitch ""A work not to be missed.… [Bartolo] limns his narrative with great compassion and humanity."" -- Marjorie Kehe - Christian Science Monitor ""Heart-wrenching and relevant."" -- Marion Winik - Minneapolis Star Tribune ""Poignant."" -- Uzodinma Iweala - New York Times Book Review ""Through Dr. Bartolo we understand that it is impossible to do nothing in the face of such great human need."" -- Vanity Fair ""Equal parts memoir, celebration of [Lampedusa] and report from the front. Above all, though, it is a plea for compassion."" -- Edward Morris - BookPage ""At a time when our broken world seems to be encouraging, and lauding, the worst of humanity, along comes the remarkable Dr. Bartolo to show us what courage, integrity, and compassion look like. His life is a manual of what it means to be human."" -- Rabih Alameddine ""Tears of Salt…reveals the human side of suffering through the life of one man."" -- Adele Annesi - Washington Independent Review of Books ""Dr. Bartolo’s spare, poignant, angry account of his life as doctor to the refugees arriving on the shores of Italy is an unusual and important addition to the growing literature of migration. Anyone wanting to understand the disaster of what is happening around us should read this book."" -- Caroline Moorehead

Author Information

Pietro Bartolo was born in Lampedusa to a family of fishermen. He returned to Lampedusa after getting his medical degree, and has been running the island’s lone clinic since 1991. He was featured in Gianfranco Rosi’s celebrated documentary film Fire at Sea, a finalist for the Academy Award. Lidia Tilotta is a journalist with RAI Regional News and Mediterraneo.

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