Set on the fictitious island of St.
Georges, Across the Great Divide
exposes the divisions caused by race
and socio-economic circumstances
and explores the ability of the human
spirit to bridge the divide.The story
chronicles the struggle of ordinary
people and their response to the
inequities around them.
Elizabeth, a recently widowed
Canadian school teacher, has come to
the small Caribbean island in search
of healing. Josef, an impoverished
Haitian laborer, is shipwrecked off St.
Georges and finds himself struggling
to survive in a hostile environment.
Their lives become intertwined as
they both care for a Haitian woman
dying of AIDS.The unfolding drama
takes the reader on a journey through
the sweeping landscape of Haiti and
probes the the quiet recesses of the
soul, provoking the reader to examine
his own response to the human
condition.
This spiritual love story is a metaphor
of hope for us all.
EXCERPT - Chapter 1, page 3
Josef sat at mid-ship, crammed between
two large, powerful looking males and
three women that looked to be in their
twenties. Smooth-skinned, high-cheek-
boned, good-looking women, with eyes
filled wih a mixture of fear, hope and
resilience. One of them looked pregnant.
Down in the hold were twenty other
souls who had desperately committed
their life savings to the captain. A fellow
Haitian, he traded in dreams that had
slim chance of being realized.
The forty-foot sloop lumbered through the
sea. Its clinker-built hull, aged and barely
sea- worthy, creaked and groaned with
the strain of its human cargo. Josef had
brought enough food for four days, but
the winds had been unfavorable and the
seas high. They were now more than six
days at sea. Josef was feeling nauseous
and thirsty. He was well used to hunger,
but the combination of sea spray and
constant rocking was starting to make him
feel disoriented. Suddenly he heard the
triumphant cheer of one of the
passengers. "La terre, Miami!"
A wave of expectation moved through
the passengers and many who had
retreated down into the hold came out to
witness their deliverance.They watched
and cheered as a group of low-lying
islands came into focus.
But the cheers of exultation were quickly
quenched by the captain who had spotted
a marine patrol boat about three miles off
starboard. He ordered everyone who
could fit into the hold to retreat out of
sight and continued his course towards the
islands. The deep blue shortly gave way
to the aquamarine of shallower waters and
approaching reefs.
CRACKED CONCH
MARIE'S STORY
NORA RYAN