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Above the Salt
An irresistible and sweeping love story that follows two Portuguese refugees who flee religious violence and reignite their budding romance in Civil-War America.
John Alves, son of a famous Presbyterian martyr on the Portuguese island of Madeira, spends his childhood in jail and in poverty. When he meets Mary Freitas—though the adopted daughter of a master botanist, her true lineage is the subject of dangerous rumor—a spark kindles a lasting bond. But soon their families must confront the rising blood tide of warfare between Catholics and Protestants. Fleeing with only what they can carry, John and Mary are separated and arrive at different times and places in a rapidly growing and changing mid-nineteenth-century Illinois.
Years later, John settles into his life as an educator at Jacksonville’s nationally renowned school for the deaf, and Mary is a gardener in Springfield for handsome, wealthy Edward Moore. After John and Mary reconnect, the home of rising politician Abraham Lincoln provides a prime setting for their courtship. But conflict looms on the horizon, and John is torn. Should he join the Union army to prove his loyalty to his new country, or should he stay to fight for the chance to make a life with the one he loves?
And should Mary accept Edward’s marriage proposal since he is a partner in her business of selling the miracle-berry fruit she transported from Madeira, or should she choose her passion for John? Social jealousies and betrayals compound the obstacles unleashed by the Civil War.
In poignant and lyrical prose, Katherine Vaz’s Above the Salt is a captivating and beautiful tribute to the power of true love and the sacrifices we make to harness it.
John Alves, son of a famous Presbyterian martyr on the Portuguese island of Madeira, spends his childhood in jail and in poverty. When he meets Mary Freitas—though the adopted daughter of a master botanist, her true lineage is the subject of dangerous rumor—a spark kindles a lasting bond. But soon their families must confront the rising blood tide of warfare between Catholics and Protestants. Fleeing with only what they can carry, John and Mary are separated and arrive at different times and places in a rapidly growing and changing mid-nineteenth-century Illinois.
Years later, John settles into his life as an educator at Jacksonville’s nationally renowned school for the deaf, and Mary is a gardener in Springfield for handsome, wealthy Edward Moore. After John and Mary reconnect, the home of rising politician Abraham Lincoln provides a prime setting for their courtship. But conflict looms on the horizon, and John is torn. Should he join the Union army to prove his loyalty to his new country, or should he stay to fight for the chance to make a life with the one he loves?
And should Mary accept Edward’s marriage proposal since he is a partner in her business of selling the miracle-berry fruit she transported from Madeira, or should she choose her passion for John? Social jealousies and betrayals compound the obstacles unleashed by the Civil War.
In poignant and lyrical prose, Katherine Vaz’s Above the Salt is a captivating and beautiful tribute to the power of true love and the sacrifices we make to harness it.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published November 7, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 112 reviews
October 30, 2023
This was breathtakingly beautiful. The author truly has a way with words, it felt like this book swallowed me up but at the same time it was an emotional Rollercoaster and a warm hug as well. So many emotions. The author's writing style is so majestic. Absolutely beautiful! I'm not typically into historical fictions but this one was truly beautiful.
I received this ARC from a Goodreads giveaway. All of the statements above are my true opinions after fully reading this book.
I received this ARC from a Goodreads giveaway. All of the statements above are my true opinions after fully reading this book.
October 30, 2023
Definitely too long - I enjoyed the story but the oft repeated meetings and star crossed lovers theme which spanned 8 decades and multiple cities became almost Forrest Gump like in the events the main characters witnessed (meeting Abe Lincoln, the battle of Shiloh, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, the Chicago World's Fair, among others) Each event creating a reason one of the other thought their eventual marriage and love was no longer possible. Enjoyable, but, as I said, too long.
October 18, 2023
Above the Salt by Katherine Vaz
Thank you to BookBrowse for the ARC of this delightful poetic language read.
This 19th century read follows soulmates John Alves and Mary Freitas, over eight decades across Portugal and the United States. Meeting at a young age and becoming friends during the blood tide of warfare between Catholics and Protestants in Portugal, their families must flee and go to the United States, where they are separated till meeting again a few years later.
Katherine Vaz’s exquisitely written love story will pull you in from beginning to end. Because it is written in the the language of its time, it isn’t a quick read. I found I had to slow down to savor the lyrical writing style of this beautifully told love story. An author I did not know of and look forward to reading more from her.
Thank you to BookBrowse for the ARC of this delightful poetic language read.
This 19th century read follows soulmates John Alves and Mary Freitas, over eight decades across Portugal and the United States. Meeting at a young age and becoming friends during the blood tide of warfare between Catholics and Protestants in Portugal, their families must flee and go to the United States, where they are separated till meeting again a few years later.
Katherine Vaz’s exquisitely written love story will pull you in from beginning to end. Because it is written in the the language of its time, it isn’t a quick read. I found I had to slow down to savor the lyrical writing style of this beautifully told love story. An author I did not know of and look forward to reading more from her.
February 8, 2024
Li-o porque sou açoriano. Li-o porque sou ao mesmo tempo protestante e ateu. Li-o porque sou um admirador de Katherine Vaz. Mas li-o sobretudo porque me agarrou na primeira página e me levou até ao fim como se, na verdade, não fosse eu a lê-lo, mas ele a fazer-se lido por mim.
O extraordinário é que tudo isto me aconteceu com a versão original. Meio por dever de ofício, meio por arrelia para com a diluição das culturas e das identidades, comecei por resistir a ler em inglês – essa língua que tudo cobre, como um manto confortável e cruel –, até que fazê-lo se tornou uma ideia estranha e, finalmente, uma impossibilidade prática.
Agora eu falava orgulhosamente mal o inglês, à maneira de Eça. O mais natural era que já não fosse sequer capaz de ler um bom romance no original americano. E, se o conseguisse, era provável que me aborrecesse ao ponto de, a dado passo, deixar de o desejar.
Acontece que a escrita de Katherine Vaz, parecendo num primeiro momento mais desafiante do que aquilo a que eu poderia corresponder, cedo se revela em todo o esplendor da sua harmonia. Começa por ser vívida onde a autora quer que seja vívida e melancólica onde a autora quer que seja melancólica para, ao fim de poucas páginas, se tornar vívida, e melancólica, e áspera, e exultante, e angustiosa nas exactas passagens onde a própria escrita decide ser vívida, melancólica, áspera, exultante e angustiosa.
Favorece-a o facto de ser tecnicamente exemplar, um hábil jogo de revelações e elipses em que a elegância com que a autora gere as melodias e os ritmos – as sonâncias e as dissonâncias, o staccato, o legato e o portato, o pianíssimo, o mezzo forte e o fortissimo – só tem paralelo no conteúdo que todas essas soluções ajudam a vestir, incluindo o que Katherine Vaz traz de um extraordinário trabalho da memória, o que junta com a sua infinita intuição simbológica e o modo como transforma tudo isso em compaixão e em amor.
Porque é disso que se trata em primeiro lugar, a história de John e de Mary: de empatia, de intimidade, de amor – de sentido. Desde que abandonam a Madeira do século XIX, fugindo tanto ao terrível destino que aguarda os heréticos como à vida dos mariscadores, à violência doméstica, às weavers of angels e aos próprios esqueletos dos piratas, os dois protagonistas procuram, em primeiro lugar, uma oportunidade de existir – uma oportunidade de ser, muito mais do que de pertencer. E as suas histórias – a sua história – tanto nos são contadas através das suas ansiedades e dos seus anseios, incluindo os momentos históricos que testemunham e os instantes momentos de solidão a que também têm de remeter-se, como através das paisagens que se podem ver e dos pratos que se podem cheirar ao longo destas páginas abençoadas, marcadas por uma diversidade de estruturas, uma amplitude lexical e um combinação de ousadias semânticas (e até sintácticas) tão diferenciadoras como, afinal, inalienáveis.
“Os humanos transformam-se naquilo que devoram.” Ora aí está uma boa proposta: também se pode devorar um livro, e talvez pudéssemos transformar-nos neste.
Mal posso esperar pela tradução portuguesa, que leio estar nas mão da extraordinária Tânia Ganho. Agora quero fazer o meu diagnóstico diferencial.
O extraordinário é que tudo isto me aconteceu com a versão original. Meio por dever de ofício, meio por arrelia para com a diluição das culturas e das identidades, comecei por resistir a ler em inglês – essa língua que tudo cobre, como um manto confortável e cruel –, até que fazê-lo se tornou uma ideia estranha e, finalmente, uma impossibilidade prática.
Agora eu falava orgulhosamente mal o inglês, à maneira de Eça. O mais natural era que já não fosse sequer capaz de ler um bom romance no original americano. E, se o conseguisse, era provável que me aborrecesse ao ponto de, a dado passo, deixar de o desejar.
Acontece que a escrita de Katherine Vaz, parecendo num primeiro momento mais desafiante do que aquilo a que eu poderia corresponder, cedo se revela em todo o esplendor da sua harmonia. Começa por ser vívida onde a autora quer que seja vívida e melancólica onde a autora quer que seja melancólica para, ao fim de poucas páginas, se tornar vívida, e melancólica, e áspera, e exultante, e angustiosa nas exactas passagens onde a própria escrita decide ser vívida, melancólica, áspera, exultante e angustiosa.
Favorece-a o facto de ser tecnicamente exemplar, um hábil jogo de revelações e elipses em que a elegância com que a autora gere as melodias e os ritmos – as sonâncias e as dissonâncias, o staccato, o legato e o portato, o pianíssimo, o mezzo forte e o fortissimo – só tem paralelo no conteúdo que todas essas soluções ajudam a vestir, incluindo o que Katherine Vaz traz de um extraordinário trabalho da memória, o que junta com a sua infinita intuição simbológica e o modo como transforma tudo isso em compaixão e em amor.
Porque é disso que se trata em primeiro lugar, a história de John e de Mary: de empatia, de intimidade, de amor – de sentido. Desde que abandonam a Madeira do século XIX, fugindo tanto ao terrível destino que aguarda os heréticos como à vida dos mariscadores, à violência doméstica, às weavers of angels e aos próprios esqueletos dos piratas, os dois protagonistas procuram, em primeiro lugar, uma oportunidade de existir – uma oportunidade de ser, muito mais do que de pertencer. E as suas histórias – a sua história – tanto nos são contadas através das suas ansiedades e dos seus anseios, incluindo os momentos históricos que testemunham e os instantes momentos de solidão a que também têm de remeter-se, como através das paisagens que se podem ver e dos pratos que se podem cheirar ao longo destas páginas abençoadas, marcadas por uma diversidade de estruturas, uma amplitude lexical e um combinação de ousadias semânticas (e até sintácticas) tão diferenciadoras como, afinal, inalienáveis.
“Os humanos transformam-se naquilo que devoram.” Ora aí está uma boa proposta: também se pode devorar um livro, e talvez pudéssemos transformar-nos neste.
Mal posso esperar pela tradução portuguesa, que leio estar nas mão da extraordinária Tânia Ganho. Agora quero fazer o meu diagnóstico diferencial.
September 1, 2023
An absorbing and engaging historical fiction covering multiple historic events. First, the Portuguese anti-Protestant movement on the island of Madeira that provides the back setting of the two main characters, John Alves and Mary (Maria) Freitas, who by chance meet and a make lasting connection, but both must flee the country to America. Thus, the premise of the plot is set, will they meet again? The reader follows the life adventures of all the characters, especially John as an American soldier and inventor working with Thomas Edison and Mary as the obedient wife of Edward, a wealthy businessman, and her work with her father, a famous botanist, plus her passion for fabric design, but many others as well. Not an easy read because of the multitude of storylines, subplots that one must follow, internal narratives and interactions between the characters, but it is essential for the plot development, and so that the reader can identify more readily with and feel for the characters, especially John and Mary, their supporters and enemies, and some famous people, including not only Thomas Edison but also Abraham Lincoln. These plot twists give the reader hope and wonderment of the destiny of characters during the other historic events the author interweaves so well: the American Civil War, the San Francisco earthquake, and other, more minor ones as well. What are their secrets for survival? Is it only marriage for Mary, and being a teacher for the deaf for John, and where and who will provide them support, and who must they support? Yes, John and Mary maintain contact, although not always successfully, but do they meet again and if so, is there a reason and who would orchestrate it? Overall, a highly recommended read, one which the reader receives a different understanding of historic events and some people’s contribution and view of these. Received the book from BookBrowse for an honest review
November 7, 2023
Katherine Vaz, the author of “Above the Salt,” has written a captivating, poignant, and memorable novel. The genres for this novel are Historical Fiction, Romance, Civil War, and Fiction. Katherine Vaz puts a magical feel in her prose, and this well-written story vividly describes the scenery, landscape, plot, and colorful and dramatic characters. John Alves and Mary Freitas are Portuguese refugees from childhood to late adulthood. Much of the background history deals with Catholics and Protestants friction and the time before, during, and after the Civil War. John spent part of his childhood with his mother, a Protestant martyr, in a jail in Madeira. John spent his young life in poverty and met Mary Freitas, an adopted daughter of a famous Botanist. As conflict and war between the two religions intensifies, both find themselves headed to America at different times.
John becomes an educator for deaf students and experiments with ways to improve the student’s learning mode. Mary and her father bring some “magical” plants to the United States and work as gardeners for Edward Moore, a wealthy landowner. Edward does help Mary with her business and would like to be engaged to her.
Mary has not forgotten John Alves. When they do meet again, many things have changed. Some people are jealous and cause betrayal. The Start of the Civil War complicates the relationships. I appreciate how the author discusses the tragedies of the Civil War, the brutality, and the cost of lives. There were twists and turns and some unexpected and emotional surprises.
I love the poetic images the author describes of nature and the symbolism of the characters. I highly recommend this thought-provoking and heartfelt novel to other readers. I found much of the background educational, and I became aware of some things I didn’t know.
I look forward to reading more books from this author.
John becomes an educator for deaf students and experiments with ways to improve the student’s learning mode. Mary and her father bring some “magical” plants to the United States and work as gardeners for Edward Moore, a wealthy landowner. Edward does help Mary with her business and would like to be engaged to her.
Mary has not forgotten John Alves. When they do meet again, many things have changed. Some people are jealous and cause betrayal. The Start of the Civil War complicates the relationships. I appreciate how the author discusses the tragedies of the Civil War, the brutality, and the cost of lives. There were twists and turns and some unexpected and emotional surprises.
I love the poetic images the author describes of nature and the symbolism of the characters. I highly recommend this thought-provoking and heartfelt novel to other readers. I found much of the background educational, and I became aware of some things I didn’t know.
I look forward to reading more books from this author.
November 19, 2023
I listened to this audiobook and it just did not connect with me. I was often confused about what was going on. I found the characters to be ehh. The story went on way longer than necessary, which may have added to the confusion and lack of connection. It did not seem to flow, and was very complicated when listening to. This seems to be a minority opinion, so may be worth considering reading and not listening on audiobook.
Thank you NetGalley for my advanced reader copy.
Thank you NetGalley for my advanced reader copy.
September 14, 2023
I was lucky enough to get to read this book in an early prepublication edition. "Above the Salt" is a gorgeous, surprising novel, at once intricate and bold. What, it asks us to consider, are our obligations to honor and love? How do we build lives across divides of time and space? Katherine Vaz asks big questions through a gorgeous tapestry of daily life while also providing a fascinating window into the experience of Portuguese refugees from the island of Madeira to the United States. I loved this book!
October 10, 2023
As a Portuguese-American with family still living in the Azores, I’m a long-time admirer of Katherine Vaz’s work (and was happy to blurb this book). I don’t know of any writer as capable of expressing the unique quality of Luso sadness, more formally known as saudade. It is a quality not easy to define, and even more difficult to make a reader feel.
I think of it as an intense yearning for something you can barely remember, like an essential dream that dissolves upon waking that you are trying desperately to recall, and failing at the task. It has been expressed most effectively through the plaintive voices of Fado singers over the past 200 years, with their modern-day heirs enjoying a contemporary renaissance, not only in the subterranean bars of Lisboa but on stages throughout the world.
In Vaz’s remarkable Above the Salt, a hallucinogenic saga of love and loss and love regained set in the 19th Century, saudade is a constant. At the beginning, a gardener with magical powers on the island of Madeira tells his young adopted daughter that her mother and father live at the bottom of the ocean, where they frolic happily with the sea creatures there. It’s a fairy tale that envelopes the unforgettable Maria Feitas in the “joyful melancholy” that is “the heat of the Portuguese soul.” And she lives with that feeling throughout her life, through a series of connections and miscommunications with the love of her life, the equally unforgettable John Alves.
In this sweeping tale, Vaz will take you to places you’ve never been, she will weave an immigrant’s journey to New York, Illinois, Florida and California that you have never experienced, and she will use language and imagery you have never read. There will be, “leaves like crabs a child had cut from brown paper,” a young granddaughter with a “storm-clearing smile,” “a boomerang of geese,” and banana trees that “sway like tall, jeweled women with violent hair who are mad to dance but only in one spot.”
Maria and John meet as children in the magical garden tended by Augusto Freitas. They’re separated by the violent clashes between Catholics and Protestants in the Madeira of the 1840s. And they meet again as immigrants in Illinois, where they are shocked to re-discover one another and fall hopelessly in love.
The treachery of others and the American Civil War separate them once again, perhaps irrevocably. And as the decades pass, and their separate lives unfold, there is always saudade, the constant yearning for a lost love that is rediscovered only at the end of their long lives. They are in their nineties when Maria and John finally lie side by side, “our nights blessed,” John muses, “dreams pink, this beloved earth, this hand in mine, this story of our lives.”
I think of it as an intense yearning for something you can barely remember, like an essential dream that dissolves upon waking that you are trying desperately to recall, and failing at the task. It has been expressed most effectively through the plaintive voices of Fado singers over the past 200 years, with their modern-day heirs enjoying a contemporary renaissance, not only in the subterranean bars of Lisboa but on stages throughout the world.
In Vaz’s remarkable Above the Salt, a hallucinogenic saga of love and loss and love regained set in the 19th Century, saudade is a constant. At the beginning, a gardener with magical powers on the island of Madeira tells his young adopted daughter that her mother and father live at the bottom of the ocean, where they frolic happily with the sea creatures there. It’s a fairy tale that envelopes the unforgettable Maria Feitas in the “joyful melancholy” that is “the heat of the Portuguese soul.” And she lives with that feeling throughout her life, through a series of connections and miscommunications with the love of her life, the equally unforgettable John Alves.
In this sweeping tale, Vaz will take you to places you’ve never been, she will weave an immigrant’s journey to New York, Illinois, Florida and California that you have never experienced, and she will use language and imagery you have never read. There will be, “leaves like crabs a child had cut from brown paper,” a young granddaughter with a “storm-clearing smile,” “a boomerang of geese,” and banana trees that “sway like tall, jeweled women with violent hair who are mad to dance but only in one spot.”
Maria and John meet as children in the magical garden tended by Augusto Freitas. They’re separated by the violent clashes between Catholics and Protestants in the Madeira of the 1840s. And they meet again as immigrants in Illinois, where they are shocked to re-discover one another and fall hopelessly in love.
The treachery of others and the American Civil War separate them once again, perhaps irrevocably. And as the decades pass, and their separate lives unfold, there is always saudade, the constant yearning for a lost love that is rediscovered only at the end of their long lives. They are in their nineties when Maria and John finally lie side by side, “our nights blessed,” John muses, “dreams pink, this beloved earth, this hand in mine, this story of our lives.”
October 15, 2023
What I will remember most about this novel is the stunningly beautiful use of words to convey feelings and images! The author possesses an amazing gift in her ability to put into words things that I did not imagine could be described. This is an immigration story, a war story, a historical drama, a family saga, but, mostly a love story. I felt the longing and sorrow emanate from the pages. The resiliency of the human spirit is exhibited many times over. I also gained a deeper appreciation for the amount of uncertainty that was present in people’s lives prior to modern methods of communication. I look forward to reading more by this author.
December 21, 2023
This book devastated me in the best way possible. The language was so beautiful and the prose sings like a melody—not to mention how much I learned about Portuguese immigrants from Madeira settling across the U.S. I loved the interwoven facts about nature and tending plants and the complicated familial dynamics. I was sad when I neared the end, savoring the last few pages like a treat. This may be one of the best love stories ever told.
January 23, 2024
Read the first 12% and couldn’t get into it, might circle back in the future
Beautiful imagery
Beautiful imagery
October 11, 2023
Above the Salt: Historical Fiction at its Finest
Based on a true story, Above The Salt by Katherine Vaz spans continents and centuries to tell a sweeping saga of the human heart. So beautifully rendered in its wisdom and details, I can't tell you many times I had to set the book down just to ponder its powerful conflicts of the heart. Ms. Vaz did meticulous research on all of topics covered in this lifelong love story of John Alves and Mary Freitas. Starting with the conflict of Protestants and Catholics on the Portuguese island of Madeira to the Presbyterian sponsored immigration of persecuted Protestants to south central Illinois, the reader follows John and Mary through the Civil War with many betrayals, missed connections, and miscommunications ending in the early twentieth century with the San Francisco earthquake and the early film industry. This is a must read for lovers of historical fiction. One of my top books for the year.
Based on a true story, Above The Salt by Katherine Vaz spans continents and centuries to tell a sweeping saga of the human heart. So beautifully rendered in its wisdom and details, I can't tell you many times I had to set the book down just to ponder its powerful conflicts of the heart. Ms. Vaz did meticulous research on all of topics covered in this lifelong love story of John Alves and Mary Freitas. Starting with the conflict of Protestants and Catholics on the Portuguese island of Madeira to the Presbyterian sponsored immigration of persecuted Protestants to south central Illinois, the reader follows John and Mary through the Civil War with many betrayals, missed connections, and miscommunications ending in the early twentieth century with the San Francisco earthquake and the early film industry. This is a must read for lovers of historical fiction. One of my top books for the year.
December 20, 2023
The 1840s immigration of Protestant Portuguese to Illinois. Prompted by religious persecution, the Catholic- Protestant conflict more often associated with Ireland . A real occurrence, often omitted in history books.
Vaz uses this as the central anchor of her novel. While the romance of Maria and John and the overarching plot lines are highly contrived, they arched through 8 decades of history. And one of them directly present for many well-known events( (Forrest Gump style).
As a literary creation it faltered under the weigh of manipulation. As a springboard to reader curiosity about some previously overlooked historic events, it excelled. The author’s Acknowledgements confirm the breadth and rigor of her research, which may have been better served by a less ambitious fictional creation. Or by a targeted, concise non-fiction effort.
Vaz uses this as the central anchor of her novel. While the romance of Maria and John and the overarching plot lines are highly contrived, they arched through 8 decades of history. And one of them directly present for many well-known events( (Forrest Gump style).
As a literary creation it faltered under the weigh of manipulation. As a springboard to reader curiosity about some previously overlooked historic events, it excelled. The author’s Acknowledgements confirm the breadth and rigor of her research, which may have been better served by a less ambitious fictional creation. Or by a targeted, concise non-fiction effort.
November 3, 2023
What a saga!!! If you like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, Laura Esquivel or just the poetry of magical realism in general, this book is like that, and *new*, and surprising. Lyrical, but the story flows in a clear line, often fast paced, with no boring episodes. Full of unexpected twists and turns. And what an epic *LOVE STORY* without any feeling of a "romance" book. I was so pulled in by this story, I could barely put it down to go to sleep. Absolutely amazing! I think the audio book will be a dream.
Thank you to the publisher, author and Goodreads for the giveaway win, and the opportunity to read this ARC. Just... wow.
Thank you to the publisher, author and Goodreads for the giveaway win, and the opportunity to read this ARC. Just... wow.
September 18, 2023
Epic Novel
Above the Salt is unlike any novel I have ever read. The author creates a tale that follows the main characters across oceans and continents, through wars and disasters. The writing style was a bit difficult at first, but soon became almost like a lullaby with its vivid descriptions and lyrical rhythms. The world inside this novel is so encompassing that even after over 400 pages, I was sad to turn the last page. This is a magical tale that will stay with me. I believe that Above the Salt will appeal to anyone who likes fiction full of engaging characters, wound through with accurate historical details, and an unpredictable but believable plot.
Above the Salt is unlike any novel I have ever read. The author creates a tale that follows the main characters across oceans and continents, through wars and disasters. The writing style was a bit difficult at first, but soon became almost like a lullaby with its vivid descriptions and lyrical rhythms. The world inside this novel is so encompassing that even after over 400 pages, I was sad to turn the last page. This is a magical tale that will stay with me. I believe that Above the Salt will appeal to anyone who likes fiction full of engaging characters, wound through with accurate historical details, and an unpredictable but believable plot.
February 14, 2024
This was truly a beautiful book with many multigenerational explorations of love - in all definitions of the word. The setting and the prose truly were some of my favorite. However, I would agree with other reviewers it was a little long/repetitive to the point I had to stop multiple times. The main characters are also highly flawed and frustrating (like most humans are of course) but I think the writing never truly got me to empathize with them despite the flaws until the tail end of the book. This is a burner of a book - the end wraps everything up beautifully but you do have to grind through a clunky middle to get there! Maybe don’t read it before bed like me ;)
February 1, 2024
I enjoyed this love story that traversed from Madeira/Portugal to the Midwest over many decades. I found the religious persecution history interesting as it was something I had not read about. I would've rated it higher, but I found the writing style to be difficult at times.
April 3, 2024
3.5 rounded up. This is a huge tale of immigrants coming to America and making a life for themselves and their children. Some beautiful prose. I only wish the plot was a bit tighter.
June 6, 2024
A nostalgic, romantic, deep story, heart wrenching & beautifully written. Moved me so much and had to give my heart breaks while reading it!
November 16, 2023
"Above the Salt" by Katherine Vaz is a masterpiece! I understand the novel took its author 18 years to complete --and it shows. The language is gorgeous in this love story of escape from religious persecution in 19th century Portugal.
The story is told to us as if from a higher realm of poetic beauty. In Vaz' world, things morph into other things, creating a kind of synesthetic sense of beauty and unity. It makes us see, as the author herself once said, that "magic realism is real."
The story is told to us as if from a higher realm of poetic beauty. In Vaz' world, things morph into other things, creating a kind of synesthetic sense of beauty and unity. It makes us see, as the author herself once said, that "magic realism is real."
January 27, 2024
4.5
Gorgeous prose, a beautiful love story that depicts the sometimes cruel, sometimes magical twists and turns of life and how in the end “everything adds up to creation, nothing [is] lost” (pg 406).
Gorgeous prose, a beautiful love story that depicts the sometimes cruel, sometimes magical twists and turns of life and how in the end “everything adds up to creation, nothing [is] lost” (pg 406).
December 25, 2023
This was a love story of a couple over their lifetimes. The story is truly above the salt.
December 5, 2023
Quite a ride
November 7, 2023
A generational saga of love, loss, religion and roots that begins in Madeira and continues in the United States. As a child John and his mother flee Madeira with Mary and her father and escape to the United States. They become separated and over the years John becomes a teacher of deaf children while Mary and her father are gardeners for a wealthy landowner in Illinois who is trying to grow pineapple. John and Mary find each other again but it is too late for John as Mary is engaged to Edward her patron. They have bad timing, different religions and the Civil War is looming but theirs is a love for the ages. A very different immigration story that incorporates the promise of freedom, ingenuity by newcomers to the US and the war that will separate families, lovers and communities. Written in what feels like an authentic voice this story will enchant readers who want a different version of the Civil War. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.
December 5, 2023
Katherine Vaz is an amazing writer. Since she was a little girl her father improve on her the importance of the "words" to comunicate. Her father chilldhood was spend in Terceira-Azores with his grandmama until his nine years old. That situation makes Vaz familly live as emigrants. Katherine's writing early becomes into her life. She was able to express herself in different ways "her" and "our" Stories. On books, teaching, sharing experinces...
Amazing cousin katherine. Since Saudade to Mariana, Fado and Other Stories, Our Lady of the Artichokes and all your shorts Stories, makes me so proud and gratefull for all you are doing in the name of Portugal and the Portuguese/Azorean Culture.
Now I can hardlly wait to read Above the Salt. Cá te esperamos. Beijinhos
Amazing cousin katherine. Since Saudade to Mariana, Fado and Other Stories, Our Lady of the Artichokes and all your shorts Stories, makes me so proud and gratefull for all you are doing in the name of Portugal and the Portuguese/Azorean Culture.
Now I can hardlly wait to read Above the Salt. Cá te esperamos. Beijinhos
November 4, 2023
This book follows John and Maria from kids into their 90s, as they are forced to leave Portugal in the 1800s and immigrate to America. The two fall in love as kids, and continue to love each other but that love is thwarted at every turn. But seriously, how many times can roadblocks come their way?? It was a very long, painful book with absolutely too many obstacles thrown their way. If I were a quitter, this book would have been a DNF. At least, I finally got to read a happy ending…after trudging through it for 3 weeks (an eternity for me).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 15, 2024
This book had initial interesting promise - 1800’s Portugal and the conversion of Catholics to Protestants. Could have been a story on its own. But then we are taken to the US and Illinois and Abraham Lincoln as characters flee the religious upheaval in Portugal. Stilted writing, yet verbose. Difficult to work through and surmise the intended meaning from the intentionally missing words and sentences with the ones selected for print. My library loan ran out and I have 1/4 left to go and I’m not going to get back in the queue.
November 28, 2023
I thought this book was very disjointed. It was very long and I was always thinking “what does this have to do with the story”. I wouldn’t recommend.
September 9, 2023
On the Portuguese island of Madeira, in the year 1840, five year old John Alves starved in jail alongside his mother, Serafina. She was a Presbyterian who refused to denounce her faith. "Music would feed them, they would feast upon sounds...".
Augusto Freitas, a Catholic, led the protest to free John. Augusto was head gardener of a Botanical Garden owned by aristocrats. He lovingly cared for the plants and was devoted to his daughter, Maria.
Sparks of friendship ignited between John and Maria, however, contact was lost when unrest between Catholics and Protestants caused each family, separately, to seek refuge in America.
Maria had a gift for Madeiran needlepoint work. "Maria plies threads..." She and her father cultivated plants. "On days dedicated to the trees, he wears a bowtie, because in Portuguese it is called a butterfly and the trees appreciate that...[he grows] a shrub with glossy dark pointed leaves and red berries...the miracle-berry or miracle-fruit plant." The father-daughter team would try to transplant the miracle shrubs in America.
New beginnings in Springfield, Illinois. John Alves studied sign language. He worked on his Sound Machine. "If only the Sound Machine could capture the gestures and swaying of his students and let the music be felt through the floor so deafness is not a prison...they would feast upon sounds...music would feed them...the melody of birds...to my listening ears all nature sings...Men are studying about capturing sounds...".
Augusto Freitas was a "maestro" of plants with a specialty in grafting. He was employed as head gardener on Edward Moore's estate. Edward's motto was "A WISHBONE ain't as likely to get ye as far as a BACKBONE." Augusto and Maria, worked side by side, trying to coax the transplant to root in this foreign soil. Success as master botanists would not entitle them to truly mix with Edward and his inner circle. They would always be viewed as "below the salt".
"Above the Salt" by Katherine Vaz is ultimately about the ebb and flow of love. Is love enough? Perhaps not, when hindrances were religious or societal. The outbreak of the Civil War compounded the obstacles and added the dimension of the plight of soldiers on both sides of the conflict in this all encompassing work of historical fiction. Altered communications and betrayals created twists and turns that were heartwrenching, if a tad soap opera-like. Highly recommended.
Thank you Flatiron Books and BookBrowse for the print ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Augusto Freitas, a Catholic, led the protest to free John. Augusto was head gardener of a Botanical Garden owned by aristocrats. He lovingly cared for the plants and was devoted to his daughter, Maria.
Sparks of friendship ignited between John and Maria, however, contact was lost when unrest between Catholics and Protestants caused each family, separately, to seek refuge in America.
Maria had a gift for Madeiran needlepoint work. "Maria plies threads..." She and her father cultivated plants. "On days dedicated to the trees, he wears a bowtie, because in Portuguese it is called a butterfly and the trees appreciate that...[he grows] a shrub with glossy dark pointed leaves and red berries...the miracle-berry or miracle-fruit plant." The father-daughter team would try to transplant the miracle shrubs in America.
New beginnings in Springfield, Illinois. John Alves studied sign language. He worked on his Sound Machine. "If only the Sound Machine could capture the gestures and swaying of his students and let the music be felt through the floor so deafness is not a prison...they would feast upon sounds...music would feed them...the melody of birds...to my listening ears all nature sings...Men are studying about capturing sounds...".
Augusto Freitas was a "maestro" of plants with a specialty in grafting. He was employed as head gardener on Edward Moore's estate. Edward's motto was "A WISHBONE ain't as likely to get ye as far as a BACKBONE." Augusto and Maria, worked side by side, trying to coax the transplant to root in this foreign soil. Success as master botanists would not entitle them to truly mix with Edward and his inner circle. They would always be viewed as "below the salt".
"Above the Salt" by Katherine Vaz is ultimately about the ebb and flow of love. Is love enough? Perhaps not, when hindrances were religious or societal. The outbreak of the Civil War compounded the obstacles and added the dimension of the plight of soldiers on both sides of the conflict in this all encompassing work of historical fiction. Altered communications and betrayals created twists and turns that were heartwrenching, if a tad soap opera-like. Highly recommended.
Thank you Flatiron Books and BookBrowse for the print ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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