Deeper Than The Ocean - An Evening with Mirta Ojuto

Tombolo Books is thrilled to welcome Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Mirta Ojito to celebrate the release of her debute novel Deeper Than The Ocean!

Told in a dual narrative that moves seamlessly between past and present, Deeper Than the Ocean is a meditation on the strength of women, the enduring power of a mother’s love and the corrosive hold of family secrets across oceans and time.

Weather permitting, this event will take place in Tombolo Books' courtyard.

More about Deeper Than The Ocean

In 1919 Spain, Catalina Quintana is the eldest daughter in a family of silkworm farmers on the tiny island of La Palma in the remote Canary Islands. Fiercely independent, Catalina dreams of building a life with her childhood love. But when a devastating fire ruins her family's silkworm farm, she’s forced into a loveless marriage and a journey across the sea to Cuba aboard a doomed ocean liner.

A century later, in 2019, journalist Mara Denis travels to La Palma to cover a modern-day disaster near the island. But the trip becomes personal when her mother asks her to find a long-lost birth certificate. Long haunted by the sea and plagued by dreams of a daughter she’s never had, Mara begins to uncover a hidden family history that centers on Catalina, her great-grandmother who, she soon discovers, is listed among the dead in the infamous Valbanera shipwreck. As Mara follows Catalina’s trail across Spain, Cuba, and Key West, she unearths a story of forbidden love and resilience that echo through six generations.

Mirta Ojito is a journalist, professor and author of two previous non-fiction books. She is the recipient of an Emmy for the documentary Harvest of Misery as well as a shared Pulitzer for national reporting in 2001, for a series of New York Times articles on race. A refugee from Cuba, her work often explores the complexities of identity, belonging, and the quiet power of resilience. She lives in Coral Gables, Florida, where she is endlessly inspired—and occasionally outnumbered—by her three grown sons and too many plants. Deeper than the Ocean is her first novel.

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