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January 11, 2022 @ 6:30 pm
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In-Person | Mona Passage: An Evening with Thomas Bardenwerper
Books & Books and Miami Book Fair present…
An Evening with Thomas Bardenwerper
discussing
Mona Passage
(Syracuse University Press, $29.95)
Tuesday, January 11, 6:30 PM ET
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About the Book:
Mona Passage is the story of two neighbors in San Juan, Puerto Rico: Galán Betances, a Cuban emigrant, and Pat McAllister, a young Coast Guard officer. During long evenings spent together talking on their Calle Luna rooftop, a deep friendship develops based on shared traumas and a common desire to heal. When Galán learns that his sister, Gabriela, is going to be committed to a mental health facility in Cuba, he plans her escape to Puerto Rico. Pat, whose Coast Guard cutter patrols the Mona Passage for drug traffickers and migrants, warns Galán that such a journey will be treacherous-perhaps fatal. Aware of the dangers but determined for Gabriela to live a full life, Galán hands over all the money he has to a Dominican smuggler based out of a San Juan nightclub, and Gabriela begins her terrifying journey.
Knowing that his cutter may be all that separates Galán and Gabriela-and haunted by the human suffering he has witnessed at sea-Pat must decide. Will he remain true to his oath, as his older brother had done in Iraq? Or will he risk his own future-and perhaps his freedom-for his closest friend?
On a moonless night, two armed vessels converge in the Mona Passage, and three lives change forever.
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About the Author:
THOMAS “BUDDY” BARDENWERPER served for five years as a Coast Guard officer aboard cutters homeported in Maine and Puerto Rico. His debut novel, Mona Passage, was selected for publication by Tobias Wolff as part of the Veterans Writing Award hosted by Syracuse University Press. After he graduates with a law and public policy degree from Harvard this spring, Buddy will be moving to Miami with his wife and daughter.