Book Review Across the Narrows

“Across the Narrows” is author Martha Burns's mother Alice's story of her search for truth about the tragic events that impacted their family decades ago. Burns tells Alice's story with a compassionate voice inspired by real family events. She writes from the heart, engaging readers with carefully crafted sentences. It takes a skilled writer to be able to write a plausible story while weaving in events and information uncovered in research. As dark family secrets unravel throughout the story there exists the need for family members to learn forgiveness for their healing to begin. The novel is a sweeping family saga spread out over decades.

The novel begins with Ruby's story in 1924 just after giving birth to a stillborn named Faith. The following year she gives birth to her last baby Alice, the author's mother. Ruby comes to the realization of how societal norms have trapped her in a certain role compounded by the frustration of wanting to be a writer. A loveless marriage with her Colombian husband Juan spurs her on to sue for legal separation. But her efforts are thwarted with a counter lawsuit resulting in Juan being granted custody of their six children. He flees the state with the family leaving Ruby abandoned and heartbroken.

The core of the story is Ruby who has to learn forgiveness and how to trust others again while crafting out a different life than she ever imagined for herself. Halfway through the novel, the story transitions into Alice's narrative. She's on a quest for answers trying to locate her mother Ruby and to uncover the "why" of being abandoned as a 5-year-old. Despite their reconnection in later years Ruby and Alice find reconciliation requires forgiveness. Alice discovers her mother Ruby has taken on an unexpected role and a satisfying one as a braille teacher and fulfilled her lifelong dream of becoming a writer.

As the reader, I became emotionally involved in the story. When Ruby and Alice reconnected the story's narrative switched from Ruby to Alice, I had hoped to learn more about Ruby's adult life and what her conversation might have been like with her daughter Alice. For me, it was a missing piece I was looking for. The book title references the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge to Brooklyn. It spans the Narrows, a body of water linking the New York Harbor with the Lower New York. The bridge became symbolic to the story as Burns drove her mother Alice over to Brooklyn seeking answers to their family history. It was here in Brooklyn that Alice and her daughter discovered Alice's childhood home, the Green-Wood cemetery where Faith was buried, and the church where Alice's father once was a pastor. Their Brooklyn visit helped put closure on some past events. 

"Across the Narrows" is a beautifully written and heartfelt story that needs to be on your winter/spring book reading list. 

ALL ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Martha Burns, a native of New Mexico, earned a Doctor of Letters with distinction from Drew University and won the Faulkner-Wisdom Gold Medal for Short Story. Martha is the mother of two daughters and now has four grandchildren. She has lived and worked in La Luz, New Mexico, New Jersey, Hawaii, California, and Switzerland and now lives in Santa Fe with her husband and two Jack Russell Terriers. Her first novel, Blind Eye, was a finalist for the Spur Award for Contemporary Fiction. Her new novel "Across the Narrows" will be released on February 27, 2024. She is pleased to be back at work on her third novel set on Oahu, Hawaii in the summer of 1985.

Check out her website https://www.marthaburnswriter.com/