Distance Between Us (Grande) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
A brutally honest book…akin to being the Angela’s Ashes of the modern Mexican immigrant experience.
Los Angeles Times


The sadness at the heart of Grande’s story is unrelenting; this is the opposite of a light summer read. But that’s OK, because...this book should have a long shelf life.
Slate


A timely and a vivid example of how poverty and immigration can destroy a family.
Daily Beast


Award-winning novelist (Across a Hundred Mountains) Grande captivates and inspires in her memoir. Raised in Mexico in brutal poverty during the 1980s, four-year-old Grande and her two siblings lived with their cruel grandmother after both parents departed for the U.S. in search of work. Grande deftly evokes the searing sense of heartache and confusion created by their parents’ departure.... Tracing the complex and tattered relationships binding the family together, especially the bond she shared with her older sister, the author intimately probes her family’s history for clues to its disintegration. Recounting her story without self-pity, she gracefully chronicles the painful results of a family shattered by repeated separations and traumas.
Publishers Weekly


After writing two award-winning novels, Grande gets down to the nitty-gritty and chronicles her life as an undocumented immigrant, from her border crossing at age nine. The distance widens between her and her father until she must finally make her own life. Brave memoir.
Library Journal


The poignant yet triumphant tale Grande tells of her childhood and eventual illegal immigration puts a face on issues that stir vehement debate
Booklist


In her first nonfiction book, novelist Grande (Dancing with Butterflies, 2009, etc.) delves into her family's cycle of separation and reunification. Raised in poverty so severe that spaghetti reminded her of the tapeworms endemic to children in her Mexican hometown, the author is her family's only college graduate and writer, whose honors include an American Book Award and International Latino Book Award.... She consistently displays a fierce willingness to ask tough questions, accept startling answers, and candidly render emotional and physical violence.... A standout immigrant coming-of-age story.
Kirkus Reviews