The Same Sky

Alice is an infertile cancer survivor who longs for a child. Although she loves her husband, Jake, and their life as owners and operators of a popular Austin, TX, BBQ restaurant, her life feels incomplete. Many miles south, an 11-year-old Honduran girl named Carla is forced to grow up quickly when her grandmother dies and her mother refuses to leave Austin to return and care for her and her six-year-old brother. Faced with escalating crime, violence, and other dangers, Carla and her brother attempt the long and dangerous journey to the U.S. border. Her harrowing story is the one that will capture the reader's interest most, and Ward wisely begins her sixth novel (after Close Your Eyes) in the young girl's voice; subsequent chapters alternate between the two characters. Alice and Carla are vastly different in terms of economic status and social privilege, but similar when it comes to possessing courage, hope, and sadness. They both also eventually put themselves first, come what may.