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Of Women and Salt

Gabriela Garcia (Goodreads Author)

3.70 · Rating details · 28,989 ratings · 3,566 reviews

In present-day Miami, Jeanette is battling addiction. Daughter of Carmen, a Cuban immigrant, she is determined to learn more about her family history from her reticent mother and makes the snap decision to take in the daughter of a neighbor detained by ICE. Carmen, still wrestling with the trauma of displacement, must process her difficult relationship with her own mother ...more

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Hardcover, 207 pages

Published March 30th 2021 by Flatiron Books

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Apr 16, 2021 Roxane rated it it was amazing

Gabriela is a former student and I was on her thesis committee so I was there when she started this novel in my workshop and to see it now out in the world warms my heart. She is an amazing writer and puts in the work. The language is so lovely in this novel and I love how it is a generational saga. Lots to love about this novel.

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Feb 14, 2021 Emily May rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, historical, 2021

And I am sorry I had nothing else to offer, Ana. That there are no real rules to govern why some are born in turmoil and others never know a single day in which the next seems an ill-considered bet. It's all lottery, Ana, all chance. It's the flick of a coin, and we are born.

3 1/2 stars. I feel very conflicted about how to rate this one because I enjoyed parts of it very much ("enjoyed" might be the wrong word, as it takes a number of dark turns) and I thought the writing was gorgeous, but I found the nonlinear narrative to be messy and confusing, and perhaps too much for such a short novel.

Of Women and Salt tells the tale of the lives of five generations of Cuban women, as well as following the story of Salvadoran immigrants - Gloria and her daughter, Ana - as it intersects with the aforementioned Cuban women. The book jumps from 21st century Miami to 1866 Camagüey to 21st century Mexico, back to Miami and Camagüey, and then to 21st century La Habana. I spent some time going back over what I'd already read in order to make sense of the timeline of what was happening.

It tells some of the women's stories in snapshots - like that of Maria Isabel and Dolores - whilst we spent a lot longer with Jeannette and Ana. I was really engrossed in the Cuba chapters, especially learning about the events leading up to the Ten Years' War - Cuba's fight for independence from Spain - and those just before the Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro in the 1950s. Garcia weaves stories about women doing what they can to survive into each of her settings.

When I say the book goes to some dark places, I should warn that it covers substance abuse and addiction, child sexual abuse, intimate partner violence and suicide. In one deeply sad part of the novel, Garcia pauses to reflect on the complexities of what it is to love someone who has been violent toward you:

The body her fingertips memorized, the universe of a relationship. All its language and borders and landscapes. A geography she studied for years and still does not understand: a man who pummels a fist into her side the same day he takes in a kitten found lying in the crook of a stairwell during a rainstorm.

The language here, the geographic metaphors, are no accident. There is a running theme throughout this short powerful novel of loving something - be it a person, or a country - that does not love you back in the way you deserve. As Gloria later says:

You cried for your old life every day. You begged to go back to Florida and how could I explain it to you, you so small and full of hope still? That the place you called home had never considered you hers, had always held you at arm's length like an ugly reflection?

I felt there were a lot of moving moments in this book, as well as a compelling look at some of the last 150 years of Cuban history. I only wish the story's timeline had been easier to follow. ...more

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Apr 29, 2021 Lisa of Troy rated it really liked it

This is a collection of short stories (this book is about 200 pages), and it follows several women through various periods of time. Although I am no stranger to multiple POV's and timeline books, this is the first book that I read that was not a thriller/mystery that had the multiple POV's/timelines.

Of Women and Salt contained some incredibly interesting stories and offered me a glimpse into a life that I have never lived, giving me a different way to view the world, forever which I will be gra ...more

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Mar 22, 2021 Dorie - Cats&Books :) rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, literature, book-from-publisher, family-drama

This was a very difficult book to read but it’s an eye opening one. This is a debut author who has a lot to say about immigration, ICE, deportation, illegal immigrants, motherhood, mother daughter relationships, rape, etc

For me I felt that there was a bit too much information crammed into a rather short novel of 240 pages. I think this would have worked better as short stories about the various women and generational connections.

I had problems with the multiple timelines in this book and the my This was a very difficult book to read but it’s an eye opening one. This is a debut author who has a lot to say about immigration, ICE, deportation, illegal immigrants, motherhood, mother daughter relationships, rape, etc

For me I felt that there was a bit too much information crammed into a rather short novel of 240 pages. I think this would have worked better as short stories about the various women and generational connections.

I had problems with the multiple timelines in this book and the myriad of characters. It took a lot of time, flipping back and forth through pages, to keep a handle on who was doing what and during what time.

I loved the beginning of the novel when we are transported to nineteenth century Cuba and a cigar making factory. I enjoyed Ms. Garcia’s very “sensory” writing of what Cuba was like at that time.

We explore the relationships of the cigar workers, mainly men, and how they didn’t really want women joining the group. As this story moves on we see how the revolution upsets the balance of the cigar factory and eventually the factory is seized and the workers are all out of a job.

In present day Miami, Carmen and Jeanette are Cuban Americans. Carmen loves her daughter Jeanette but there are communication problems between the two and they often struggle to understand each other. Jeanette is finally overcoming her addiction problems and is now working and living on her own. She sees her neighbor Gloria being taken away by ICE and her young daughter Ana left behind, coming home from school to an empty, locked house. Jeanette takes her in and mother Carmen doesn’t understand why she should take on more problems.

Eventually Jeanette travels to Cuba to see her grandmother and try to understand all of the secrets from the past generation.

In an interview on NPR on March 28, 2021 the author stated the following:

“GARCIA: I wanted to write about what it's like to grow up in a violent, patriarchal society while not censuring those men. And so the book is only in the voices and perspectives of the women, and the men sort of exist at the periphery. And a lot of them are violent in various different ways. So I wanted all of it to sort of just center on the women and how they survive in this society.” The entire interview can be read on the NPR website, it’s an interesting addition to reading the book.

While I enjoyed the novel I felt it was a little frustrating to read and keep track of everyone. Perhaps it would be best to read this novel in as few sittings as possible.

I received an ARC of this novel from the author through the publisher Flatiron Books.

Readers who enjoy multi-generational historical fiction will enjoy this novel. ...more

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Sep 16, 2021 Taylor Reid added it

Shelves: 2021

From 19th-century Cuba to Mexico to present-day Miami, Garcia creates a rich backdrop for this sweeping intergenerational family saga that weaves together the lives of five generations of women. The story centers on Carmen, still reeling from the trauma of displacement, and her daughter Jeanette, who is battling addiction, as they navigate their difficult relationship and the long-held secrets of the past. I loved it.

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Jun 01, 2021 Angela M rated it really liked it

Shelves: edelweiss-reviews

This is a powerful debut, beautifully written with characters easy to connect to. It’s a multigenerational story of mothers and daughters spanning from 1866 Cuba to 2019 in Miami. There are non linear multiple narratives, both past and present that are moving and relevant. I felt for each of the women portrayed here and how their own traumatic circumstances be it political upheaval, rape, abuse, drug addiction, deportation, the dismal detention center where one had to face the complications of t ...more

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Apr 18, 2021 Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader rated it it was amazing

Shelves: drtbr2

Quick thoughts: A beautifully and powerfully-written literary character study of women, especially experiences related to immigration and resilience.

This is a strong debut and deserves all the accolades it has received. It exposes all sides to immigration in the United States. I loved it so much I had to order the UK copy, which features a panther on the cover.

Thank you to my friends at Goodreads and Flatiron Books for the gifted copy.

Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennif ...more

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Jul 08, 2021 JanB rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, 2021-reads, book-club

How do women navigate and learn to deal with the abuses of men and the abuses of an oppressive regime?

The women in these pages aren’t self-sacrificing martyrs, they are complex human beings, flaws and all. The book reads as a collection of short stories that are woven together by a common theme. We begin in Cuba in the 1880’s and end in present day U.S. The characters and non-linear timelines makes for difficult reading. It’s hard to keep everything straight, and while a family tree at the star ...more

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Jan 03, 2021 Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2021

Published in the UK today 15-4-21

She knew and, despite the weight of it, accepted her role as liberator of a frightened man. María Isabel thought it had always been women who wove the future out of the scraps, always the characters, never the authors. She knew a woman could learn to resent this post, but she would instead find a hundred books to read.

In 1870 Victor Hugo replied to a letter from the Cuban exile Emilia Casanova de Villaverde (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilia_...) – wife of ...more

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Apr 09, 2021 Bkwmlee rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc-direct-from-publisher, fiction

In trying to rate this book, I feel a bit conflicted. On the one hand, I loved the beautiful, lyrical writing and the way that the author, Gabriela Garcia, was able to capture the emotional nuances of her characters so perfectly (and seemingly effortlessly). I love family stories that span generations and I felt this one was particularly well done in terms of showing the generational connections between the various women as well as how the decisions each one makes impact each other in a profound
In trying to rate this book, I feel a bit conflicted. On the one hand, I loved the beautiful, lyrical writing and the way that the author, Gabriela Garcia, was able to capture the emotional nuances of her characters so perfectly (and seemingly effortlessly). I love family stories that span generations and I felt this one was particularly well done in terms of showing the generational connections between the various women as well as how the decisions each one makes impact each other in a profound way. I also found it admirable how Garcia was able to cover so much ground in such a short novel (this one clocked in at a little over 200 pages), seamlessly weaving into the narrative timely and important topics such as illegal immigration, deportation, the border crisis, drug addiction, domestic and sexual abuse, etc., alongside political and historical events related to Cuba and the revolution that occurred there, plus aspects of the Cuban culture and community. The way that Garcia presented the struggles that her characters (women some from the same family but different generations, others not from the family but connected somehow) go through, I felt like I was getting a first-hand account more powerful than what usually gets presented in the news. I definitely learned a lot!

With all that said, one of the things that didn’t work too well for me was the non-linear structure of the story. I didn’t have a problem with each chapter being told from the perspective of different characters, but what made this a frustrating read for me was the jumping back and forth between multiple timelines and settings in a non-chronological way (for example – jumping from 2018 to 1866, then to 2014, then to 1959 then to 2016 then back to 2006, etc.). I found it really difficult to keep track of the story arcs and ended up having to flip back and forth a lot. I think if I had been able to finish this book in one sitting, it would’ve been fine, but the reality is that I’m rarely able to do so with how busy my life often gets.

Overall, I feel that this is a strong, assured debut that’s also a necessary read, especially for readers who like well-written contemporary fiction that not just reflects current times and issues, but also incorporates historical aspects as well. Definitely highly recommended, though with the caveat that it’s best to read this one all in one sitting if you are able to. It’s also not an easy read by any means due to the heavy (and oftentimes controversial) topics it covers — though triggers abound, it’s still very much a worthwhile read.

Received print ARC from publisher (Flatiron Books) via BookBrowse. ...more

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May 12, 2021 Linda rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, history, cuba, hispanic-themes-authors, historical-fiction

"That there are no real rules that govern why some are born in turmoil and others never know a single day in which the next seems an ill-considered bet. It's all lottery, Ana, all chance. It's the flick of a coin, and we are born."

I pondered over this title, Of Women and Salt, and came away with something that may never have been the intent of the author. I pictured these five generations of women contained within this novel and then thought of women in general. There are deep wounds that we car "That there are no real rules that govern why some are born in turmoil and others never know a single day in which the next seems an ill-considered bet. It's all lottery, Ana, all chance. It's the flick of a coin, and we are born."

I pondered over this title, Of Women and Salt, and came away with something that may never have been the intent of the author. I pictured these five generations of women contained within this novel and then thought of women in general. There are deep wounds that we carry buried beneath the surface. And then there are those readily recognized by others who reflect them in kind. But at times, life has a tendency to trickle salt into their openness.....stinging and oozing from the pains of the past.

Gabriela Garcia has created quite the read here that seems to reflect upon those thoughts. Her talent is evident as we come face-to-face with her intricate characters set in Cuba, Mexico, Central America, and the United States. Quite frankly, this was an undertaking stretching in time, in place, and in circumstance. At times, the storyline unravels in a multitude of directions with placement in the 1860's in Cuba to modern times in America. Sometimes "the telling" stayed too long in one location and not long enough in others.

Of Women and Salt opens with the character of Maria Isabel who is the sole female worker rolling cigars and bending in that position for hours in an overheated warehouse. The workers are read to every day to keep up productivity. She thrives on the classics even though she, herself, cannot read. Her marriage prospects are limited until the arrival of Antonio, the reader. And the magic and the heartache is to begin.

The story continues to unfold through Maria's daughter, Cecilia, and her daughter, Dolores, and her daughter, Carmen, and her daughter, Jeanette. Garcia will take us through the early signs of the Revolution in Cuba as it gains its footing and forces the tremendous hardships and the constant upheaval for power. We are struck by the poverty and the limitations put upon the people when Jeanette visits her grandmother. And at the same time, we experience the resilience of the Cuban people.

My wish would have been that Gabriela Garcia would have developed this story into two separate novels. I was more caught up with the early years in Cuba in the 1860's and, in particular, the remarkable story of Dolores in 1959 and her survival skills. There was an abundance of storyline here for even more expansion. History was in the making and it surrounded this family in Camaguey.

Then Gabriela Garcia shifts the story to more modern times with intense details of Jeanette's story that parallels her mother, Carmen. Jeanette's character seemed to serve as a reactionary spinning against the swirling social evils and temptations of this world. Garcia's finale closes the door with a hard slam at the end with packages wrapped and left on the doorstep.

But hear me out: Of Women and Salt is a worthy read. It has a magic to pull you in. You'll fully notice the shoulda, coulda, woulda gaps here and there. But Gabriela Garcia is a talent on the brink of full bloom. You won't want to miss being within and experiencing the seedling stage of such a writer. ...more

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Jun 19, 2021 Elyse Walters added it

Not rating — I checked this book out from the library twice - THREE TIMES I TRIED TO FINISH IT…
Finally started skimming…..

Willing to chalk it up to me - not the book - but I just couldn’t fully connect and stay interested.

Honestly…. It was me … and my smashed up marshmallow brain.

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Mar 11, 2021 Lupita Reads rated it did not like it

I am not writing this post to signal an alarm that this book is problematic. This review only speaks to my own experiences and gut feelings with how I processed this book. That said I am going to signal boost Lorraine Avila's review for this book in Tastefully Rude called “Of Women and Salt: A Beautiful Novel from Flatiron Books Rubs Salt In The Wounds Of The Black Caribbean” - go read that first. I have linked to in my stories. I am keeping these thoughts vague to reduce the potential of spoile I am not writing this post to signal an alarm that this book is problematic. This review only speaks to my own experiences and gut feelings with how I processed this book. That said I am going to signal boost Lorraine Avila's review for this book in Tastefully Rude called “Of Women and Salt: A Beautiful Novel from Flatiron Books Rubs Salt In The Wounds Of The Black Caribbean” - go read that first. I have linked to in my stories. I am keeping these thoughts vague to reduce the potential of spoilers.

I am writing this post because I want to engage critically with literature written about a community I am part of. I want to explore through this critique why it is I personally found myself struggling with reading and now supporting OF SALT & WOMEN by Gabriela Garcia. Sitting with each chapter of this exploration of five generations of mujeres latinas I felt hit in the face with how linear and one-dimensional their stories all felt. How the focus & unraveling of their trauma felt like it served more as a vehicle to move a story further rather than a way to explore the multitudes of resilience that exist within the Latinx/e community, especially women. From the blurbs to the synopsis it appears that the intention of the novel was to showcase “survivorship”. For me, it instead showcased characters as empty vessels to their trauma.

Although it feels like the intention to make the secondary characters- Gloria and Ana, Central American, was done thoughtfully to counter the lack of inclusion & centering of the Central American migrant experience in the media, it fails. It reduces Gloria and Ana to simple ploys within the Cuban American character's lives. This struck me and nagged at me the most about the book because there IS a lack of attention to Central American voices writing about and speaking about their migration experiences. Without the characters actively telling you they were from El Salvador within the book, there was little else about their lived experience written that would indicate to a reader that these characters were Central American. It is the lack of building that made this book a massive miss for me. ...more

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Jun 29, 2021 Barbara rated it liked it

Shelves: literature, adult-fiction

2.5 stars: I’m not sure how I feel about “Of Women and Salt” by Gabriela Garcia. For me, it became a series of short stories that are linked by a Cuban woman and her female lineage. The prose is beautiful, although at times a bit awkward/clunky. The different stories about the women don’t follow a timeline, so that was a bit clunky for me as well.

A Salvadorian woman and her young daughter are introduced in the story, and I, as a reader wasn’t sure what their point was. I felt perhaps Garcia want ...more

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Apr 21, 2021 Cheri rated it really liked it

Shelves: literary-fiction, arc, publisher-flatiron, 2021, cuba, immigration, historical-fiction, contemporary

This begins, briefly, in 2018 with a woman who is writing to her daughter, a plea that begins with 'Jeanette, tell me that you want to live.' She begs her daughter to stop killing herself, and get sober. She tells her 'Sun child, hair permanently whisked by wind, you were happy once. I see it, looking over these photos. Such smiles. How was I to know you held such a secret?' Maybe if they could sit together, she could share her story so that Jeanette will better understand the decisions she’s ma ...more

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May 07, 2021 Kathleen rated it really liked it

Garcia has woven a multigenerational novel through the points-of-view of 6 narrators and chapters that shift timelines to include 5 generations and 4 countries. It is the author’s beautiful writing that holds this complicated structure together. This is a story about mothers and daughters and how they survive and grow despite having to deal with toxic men and heartless countries.

There is María Isabel who is the only female cigar roller in Cuba, just before the Ten Years War that achieved Indepen ...more

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Mar 29, 2021 Maureen rated it really liked it

Shelves: giveaway-arc

3.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️rounded to 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Cuba 1866-Maria Isabel to Ana-Mexico 2019.
Jeanette in Miami battling addition wants to know about her family history in Cuba. She travels to Cuba to confront her grandmother with all her questions.

This is the tale of five generations of strong women battling everyday life to immigration
It is not a happy story. it is filled with substance abuse, child and spousal abuse, and the plight of immigration to the United States.
The story is intermingled with different sett ...more

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Mar 26, 2021 Sarah rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, netgalley, not-for-me

I'm clearly an outlier with my negative review, so take all of this with a pinch of salt.

While I commend what the book sets out to do - tell the story and experiences of generations of different Cuban women (and a woman from El Salvador) who have emigrated to the US - this didn't make for an enjoyable reading experience for a number of reasons. The writing felt clunky, there is WAY too much going on, and the characters fell flat. If these things had been done well I might've been able to put up ...more

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Sep 09, 2021 Catherine (alternativelytitledbooks) rated it liked it

Shelves: popsugar-challenge-2021

Whatever you do, make it past the first story!

This is a collection of intertwining short stories, and the first chapter is essentially historical fiction. It's rather hard to get through, at least it was for me. Granted, historical fiction isn't really my genre of choice, but if it's engaging I can get lost in it from time to time. I appreciate wanting to give this family context, but my interest waned in the early pages.

Jeanette's chapters, however? Completely soared, were engrossing and atmosp ...more

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Jun 15, 2021 Linda rated it really liked it

Gabriela Garcia's mother is Cuban, and her father is Mexican. She grew up hearing the diverse stories of legal and illegal Latinx immigrants in Florida.
In her finely crafted debut novel, Of Women and Salt, Garcia examines these worlds through the stories of women. The book focuses on Jeanette, a twenty-something Cuban- American who is struggling with addiction, and her neighbor Gloria and her seven-year-old daughter Ana, illegal immigrants from El Salvador.

Jeanette is trying to piece together h ...more

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Mar 31, 2021 luce ❀ wishfully reading ❀ rated it liked it

Shelves: v-so-so-reads, disappointing-reads, 2021-reviews, overdrive-ebooks, overdrive-audiobooks

❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀

However distressing, I appreciated the realities, issues, and themes Gabriela Garcia explores throughout her novel. Sadly, the author's execution and writing style lessened my overall reading experience. I know that interconnected narratives can work well, and some of my favourite novels employ this technique (The Travelers and Travellers), but I would have probably preferred for Of Women and Salt to either be a series of short stories or to ...more

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May 14, 2021 Diana | Book of Secrets rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, contemporary-fiction, womens-fiction, dual-time-periods

I'm torn over this book. I feel like OF WOMEN AND SALT paints a distressing and realistic picture of immigration to the US, particularly what it's like for women from Latin America entering the country illegally. I would call it a timely novel, though detention centers, family separation, and deportation have been going on for many years.
•
My issue with this book was its lack of a strong plot. This has been mentioned in other reviews, but it's more a collection of short stories, some very compel ...more

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Jun 28, 2021 Whitney Erwin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book is eye-opening. Very thought provoking. I enjoyed it.

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Mar 07, 2021 Book Clubbed rated it really liked it

A welcome antidote to the maudlin mess of American Dirt, Of Women and Salt has the scope and wider-ranging curiosities we typically see in a much longer novel. Closer to a collection of connected short stories, the punchy sections are compact, although the format may limit the overarching emotional storylines. At times, the stories set closer to the present forget to set the characters in motion, concerned with picking through the past, the emotional tenor stagnant.

There is, however, a lot to ...more

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Apr 10, 2021 Sarah-Hope rated it it was amazing

Gabriela Garcia's Of Women and Salt is set during the Obama administration, but it's very much a book of our time. The novel explores the complicated relationships among different generations of women in Cuba and Miami, with the earliest generations living in Cuba during the revolution and the more recent generations in not-quite-present-day Florida. It also explores the relationship between a separate mother-daughter pair, Salvadorans who are living in the U.S. without documentation. Many of th ...more

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Apr 13, 2021 Karen (idleutopia_reads) rated it did not like it

I truly wanted to like this one but it was a disparate patchwork that never came together to form a cohesive story. There were problems with the structure which I should have known since I saw the family tree which was so simple as to be a bit laughable. Still, I gave it a chance because it was own voices story and it is and should have stuck to that. There was potential in this book which I think made it even worse that nothing came to fruition. Anything that could have been thrown into this st ...more

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Apr 13, 2021 Joy D rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: family-dynamics, zck, reviewed, literary-fiction, north-america, migration, xaucc

Multigenerational story of mothers and daughters in migrant families, this book reads as a series of interlinked stories. Several stories relate to Jeanette in present-day Miami, recovering from addiction, and her mother, Carmen. Jeanette watches her neighbor, Gloria, taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). She takes in the neighbor’s seven-year-old Salvadoran daughter, Ana, who was with her babysitter at the time. Moving back into history, we find one of Jeanette’s ancestors, a fema ...more

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Sep 13, 2020 Christian rated it it was amazing

I’m still thinking about this book even after I finished it. Beautiful, tragic, so powerful in such poetic form.

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Feb 05, 2021 Sofia rated it really liked it

I am having a hard time formulating my feelings about this book. I wish it were two books - the multigenerational story of Cuban women and then the immigration story of a Salvadoran girl and her mother. Both stories were compelling - I just think the thread between the stories was tenuous at best, especially with the way it ended.

3.5 stars rounded up because of the beautiful writing. But for me, this book didn’t live up to the hype.

An imaginary star for all the feels reading about my Cuban peo ...more

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Nov 29, 2020 Lisa Jablonsky rated it it was amazing

So good. 5 generations of women, in Cuba, Mexico and Miami. A current day ICE deportation in Miami kicks off the story. We learn about immigrants, husbands and wifes, mothers and daughters, sisters, love, lies and betrayals. Very engrossing and important in today's world. ...more

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About Gabriela Garcia

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Gabriela Garcia is the author of the novel Of Women and Salt, a New York Times bestseller and Editors' Choice. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award and a Steinbeck Fellowship from San Jose State University. Her fiction and poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, Tin House, Zyzzyva, Iowa Review, and elsewhere. She has an MFA in fiction from Purdue and lives in the Bay ...more

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Quotes from Of Women and Salt

“That there are no real rules that govern why some are born in turmoil and others never know a single day in which the next seems an ill-considered bet. It’s all lottery, Ana, all chance. It’s the flick of a coin, and we are born.” — 18 likes

“I thought, for the first time, My God. Nobody asked you either, Mary. Nobody asked if God could build a temple out of you, if you wanted to turn your life into an offering.” — 9 likes

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