Overview

"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."

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9781797159478

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Reviews

"""Grande captivates and inspires in her memoir...Recounting her story without self-pity, she gracefully chronicles the painful results of a family shattered by repeated separations and traumas."" -- ""Publishers Weekly (starred review)"" ""Grande is a fierce, smart, shimmering light of a writer with an important story to tell."" -- ""Cheryl Strayed, #1 New York TImes bestselling author"" ""In this poignant memoir about her childhood in Mexico, Reyna Grande skillfully depicts another side of the immigrant experience--the hardships and heartbreaks of the children who are left behind. Through her brutally honest firsthand account of growing up in Mexico without her parents, Grande sheds light on the often overlooked consequence of immigration--the disintegration of a family."" -- ""Sonia Nazario, Pulitzer Prize-winning author"" ""Powerful, harrowing."" -- ""San Antonio Express News"" Eloquent, honest storytelling. This book would be fabulous required reading for college freshmen or, even better, for freshman members of Congress."" -- ""Washington Independent Review of Books"""

Grande captivates and inspires in her memoir...Recounting her story without self-pity, she gracefully chronicles the painful results of a family shattered by repeated separations and traumas. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) Grande is a fierce, smart, shimmering light of a writer with an important story to tell. -- Cheryl Strayed, #1 New York TImes bestselling author In this poignant memoir about her childhood in Mexico, Reyna Grande skillfully depicts another side of the immigrant experience--the hardships and heartbreaks of the children who are left behind. Through her brutally honest firsthand account of growing up in Mexico without her parents, Grande sheds light on the often overlooked consequence of immigration--the disintegration of a family. -- Sonia Nazario, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Powerful, harrowing. -- San Antonio Express News Eloquent, honest storytelling. This book would be fabulous required reading for college freshmen or, even better, for freshman members of Congress. -- Washington Independent Review of Books

Author Information

Reyna Grande is an award-winning author, motivational speaker, and writing teacher. As a young girl, she crossed the US-Mexico border to join her family in Los Angeles, a harrowing journey chronicled in The Distance Between Us, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. Her other books include the novels A Ballad of Love and Glory, Across a Hundred Mountains, and Dancing with Butterflies, the memoirs The Distance Between Us: Young Readers Edition, and A Dream Called Home, and the anthology Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings. She lives in Woodland, California, with her husband and two children. Visit ReynaGrande.com for more information. Yareli Arizmendi was born in Mexico City. A proud Cuban-Mexican-American, she studied high school in Kansas. She earned a BA in Political Science from the UCSD and went on to receive her MFA at the same institution. She is best known for her role as Rosaura in 'Like Water for Chocolate' and Lila in the cult classic A Day Without a Mexican. Multi-faceted, Yareli is an actress with vast character range who has appeared in the Emmy-winning television shows Six Feet Under, Heroes, House, 24, NYPD Blue and Chicago Hope. She is married to film director/rocker/artist Sergio Arau, who she met on the set of Like Water For Chocolate. Yareli and Sergio own Eye On The Ball Films for which she is VP of Development.

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