The Great Divide: A Novel

A TODAY Show Read With Jenna Book Club Pick, The Great Divide is a powerful novel about the building of the Panama Canal and the overlooked people who lived, loved, and labored there.

Francisco, a local fisherman, is angered when his son Omar takes a job as a digger for the foreign-led project. For Omar, however, the work offers a rare sense of purpose and connection.

Ada Bunting, a determined sixteen-year-old from Barbados, arrives in Panama as a stowaway, hoping to earn enough money for her sister’s surgery. When she helps the exhausted Omar, her courage catches the attention of Dr. John Oswald, a scientist devoted to eradicating malaria. As his wife falls ill, Oswald hires Ada as a caregiver—an act that links their fates in unexpected ways.

Through their intertwined stories, the novel reveals a sweeping portrait of ambition, compassion, and resilience among those history has long ignored.