-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
A Memoir
by Reyna Grande
After publishing two acclaimed and award-winning novels about the Mexican immigrant experience and the families forced to navigate its twists and turns, celebrated author Reyna Grande reveals her own troubled and triumphant story as an illegal immigrant in the heartfelt memoir The Distance Between Us.
Born in Mexico and raised by her grandparents after her parents left to find work in the U.S., at nine years old, Reyna enters the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant to live with her father. Filled with hope, she quickly realizes that life in America is far from perfect. Her father isn't the man she dreamed about all those years in Mexico. His big dreams for his children are what gets them across the border, but his alcoholism and rage undermine all his hard work and good intentions. Reyna finds solace from a violent home in books and writing, inspired by the Latina voices she reads. After an explosive altercation, Reyna breaks away, going on to become the first person in her family to obtain a higher education, earning a college degree and then an M.F.A. in Creative Writing.
At a time when immigration politics are at a boiling point in America, Reyna Grande is an important public voice for Mexican Americans and immigrants of every origin. The Distance Between Us has the power to change minds and hearts.
"Starred Review. Recounting her story without self-pity, she gracefully chronicles the painful results of a family shattered by repeated separations and traumas." - Publishers Weekly
"Brave memoir." - Library Journal
"A standout immigrant coming-of-age story." - Kirkus
"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...Grande sheds light on the often overlooked consequence of immigration - the disintegration of a family." - Sonia Nazario, Pulitzer Prize winner, and author of Enrique's Journey
This information about The Distance Between Us was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Reyna Grande is the author of two award-winning novels. Across a Hundred Mountains received an American Book Award, and Dancing with Butterflies was the recipient of an International Latino Book Award. Reyna lives in Los Angeles.
If you liked The Distance Between Us, try these:
The Making of Yolanda la Bruja
by Lorraine Avila
Published 2024
Elizabeth Acevedo has said that reading Lorraine Avila feels like an "uppercut to the senses." You've never encountered an author with prose of this sensitivity and fire.
by Jessica Goudeau
Published 2021
The story of two refugee families and their hope and resilience as they fight to survive and belong in America.
by Jenny Torres Sanchez
Published 2021
Winner of the 2020 BookBrowse Award for Best Young Adult Novel
A poignant novel of desperation, escape, and survival across the U.S.-Mexico border, inspired by current events.
You can lead a man to Congress, but you can't make him think.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
