Across a Hundred Mountains

“Across a Hundred Mountains” is a stunning and poignant story of migration, loss, and discovery as two women — one born in Mexico, one in the United States — find their lives joined in the most unlikely way.After a tragedy separates her from her mother, Juana Garcia leaves her small town in Mexico to find her father, who left his home and family two years before to find work in America, “el otro lado,” and rise above the oppressive poverty so many of his countrymen endure.

Out of money and in need of someone to help her across the border, Juana meets Adelina Vasquez, a young woman who left her family in California to follow her lover to Mexico. Finding each other — in a Tijuana jail — in desperate circumstances, they offer each other much needed material and spiritual support and ultimately become linked forever in the most unexpected way.

The phenomenon of Mexican immigration to the United States is one of the most controversial issues of our time. While it is often discussed in terms of the political and economic implications, Grande, with this brilliant debut novel and her own profound insider’s perspective, puts a human face on the subject. Who are the men, women, and children whose lives are affected by the forces that propel so many to risk life and limb, crossing the border in pursuit of a better life?

Take the journey “Across a Hundred Mountains” and see.