In this week's edition of Endnotes, we take a look at Pulitzer-winning journalist Mirta Ojito's, fiction debut, Deeper Than the Ocean, a parallel narrative of two women who have been exiled from their island home nearly a century apart. In its review, PW says "This one’s tough to shake."
Here's how the book came together:
Mirta Ojito
“This book was my mother’s last gift to me. Toward the end of her life, every time I visited her she told me stories about her life. Some I had heard before, but others were new to me. At first I nodded along and thought she was getting melancholic in her old age, but now I know she was handing me her memories for safekeeping. Everything she told me made its way into the book, and her stories forced the narrative in a different direction.”
Johanna V. Castillo
“From the first moment, I knew this story was something I wanted to help bring into the world. After Mirta finished working on the manuscript we went out on a wide submission, and the wonderful Claire Wachtel read it in one sitting and loved it. She was the perfect editorial match.”
Claire Wachtel
“I began reading this novel and was immediately drawn in by the beautiful writing and transported to a time and world I knew little about: the Canary Islands in the early 1900s and the ship disaster that became known as the poor man’s Titanic. The manuscript needed little editorial work. I made my suggestions, the author and I discussed them, and she sent me a revised manuscript.”
Jared Oriel
“We wanted to create a cover that was graphic and bold in its design that also reflected themes from the novel. The Canary Islands, the ocean, and Cuba play a large role in this book. The waves double as strands of silver mixed with red-colored strands, the hue of the main protagonist Mara’s hair, intertwined with the type.”
