| 9780393651287 |
| 0393651282 |
Available:*
Library | Material Type | Call Number | Shelf Location | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Penrose Library | Book | 610.92 BART | Biography | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
Situated more than one hundred miles off Italy's southern coast, the rocky island of Lampedusa has hit world headlines in recent years as the first port of call for hundreds of thousands of African and Middle Eastern refugees fleeing civil war and terrorism and hoping to make a new life in Europe. Dr. Pietro Bartolo, who runs the lone medical clinic on the island, has been caring for many of them--both the living and the dead--for a quarter century.
Tears of Salt is Dr. Bartolo's moving account of his life and work set against one of the signal crises of our time. With quiet dignity and an unshakable moral center, he tells unforgettable tales of pain and hope, stories of those who didn't make it and those who did. Tears of Salt is a lasting work of literature and an intimate portrait of a remarkable man whose inspiring message rings clear: "We can't and we won't be governed by our fears."
Author Notes
Pietro Bartolo was born in Lampedusa to a family of fishermen. He returned to Lampedusa after getting his medical degree, and has been running the island's lone clinic since 1991. He was featured in Gianfranco Rosi's celebrated documentary film Fire at Sea, a finalist for the Academy Award.
Lidia Tilotta is a journalist with RAI Regional News and Mediterraneo.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this moving account of attending to victims of war, Italian physician Bartolo makes an impassioned plea for more public awareness of and effective humanitarian solutions for refugees from Africa and the Middle East. Practicing on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, Bartolo compares his life to those of the refugee men, women, and children who arrive on the island by boat, many of whom he treats (his clinic is the only one on the island). Bartolo, writing with Italian journalist Tilotta, doesn't shy away from discussing the toughest of situations and gives voice to the many nameless refugees who, in their native countries, were victims of racism, rape, sex trafficking, illegal organ harvesting, and sexual dismemberment; he also tells the stories of many others, whose bodies were found in boat holds or floating off shore. Bartolo writes: "You can wear all the protective gear you like, but you cannot protect your soul. This is war." Equating the refugee crisis with the Holocaust, he has written a powerful condemnation of public inertia to foreign tragedies that brings home a truly arresting "chronicle of suffering." (Jan) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Admirers of the refugee-crisis documentary Fire at Sea, shot by Italian filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa and nominated for a 2016 Academy Award, will now learn more about heroic local doctor Bartolo. In his memoir, written with the help of journalist Tilotta, he explains that migrants from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East travel by boat to his homeland to escape war, torture, and terror. Throughout his story of rescues and deaths (including 368 body bags on October 3, 2013), Bartolo makes it clear that he loves Lampedusa and the desperate people who flee their homes to reach it. He tells stories of how to get admitted to the hospital in Sicily rather than getting sent to prison in Tunisia migrants ingest things like rusty nails and even razor blades. He shares his compassion for them as they arrive at this small piece of the earth's crust that broke off from Africa and drifted toward Europe . . . a symbolic gateway between the two continents. As the refugee crisis continues, Bartolo's tale is timely and important.--Springen, Karen Copyright 2018 Booklist
Table of Contents
| Mare nostrum | p. 13 |
| One red shoe | p. 18 |
| There is no getting used to it | p. 22 |
| Women on the way | p. 25 |
| The wounds you cannot see | p. 30 |
| Drawing lots | p. 39 |
| An irrevocable choice | p. 45 |
| The girl in the front row | p. 52 |
| Risky investments | p. 57 |
| A Fèrra | p. 63 |
| Back to the island | p. 67 |
| Little pieces of home | p. 74 |
| Omar is unstoppable | p. 81 |
| The will of the waves | p. 86 |
| The greatest gift | p. 91 |
| Faduma and Jerusalem | p. 94 |
| Young Anuar's wisdom | p. 101 |
| A blessing from heaven | p. 105 |
| Giacomo's path | p. 109 |
| Arms of giants | p. 114 |
| God is not to blame | p. 118 |
| The lengths they will go to | p. 121 |
| When a mayor understands what world leaders cannot | p. 126 |
| L'erba tinta un mori mai | p. 130 |
| The off-season tourist | p. 139 |
| Never shall I forget | p. 150 |
| The boat cemetery | p. 157 |
| You brought this upon yourself | p. 161 |
| Favor with the media | p. 166 |
| Lampedusa | p. 179 |
| October 3, 2013 | p. 185 |
| Children of the same sea | p. 196 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 201 |
| Letters | p. 204 |
