Product Description
For twenty-five years, Dr. Pietro Bartolo has run the lone medical clinic on the Italian island of Lampedusa. In that time he has rescued, welcomed, and cared for many of the hundreds of thousands of desperate migrants from the Middle East and Africa who have washed up on the island’s shores. In this inspiring account of his life and work, Bartolo shares his quiet dignity, unshakable moral center, and inspirational message―"We can't and we won't be governed by our fears."
The book is filled with Bartolo's unforgettable tales of pain and hope, moving stories of those who didn’t make it and those who did.
Tears of Salt is both a lasting work of literature and an intimate portrait and fresh perspective on a signal crisis of our time.
The book is filled with Bartolo's unforgettable tales of pain and hope, moving stories of those who didn’t make it and those who did.
Tears of Salt is both a lasting work of literature and an intimate portrait and fresh perspective on a signal crisis of our time.
Reviews/Praise
"Tears of Salt is a tender personal memoir of a fisherman's son turned doctor on the rocky island of Lampedusa, where Dr. Bartolo is at once the savior and the coroner to boatload after boatload of migrants who risk everything to cross the deadly seas. It is also a damning indictment of the broader, collective indifference of humankind to both the drowned and the saved."—Philip Gourevitch
"Dr. Bartolo's spare, poignant, angry account of his life as doctor to the refugees arriving on the shores of Italy is an unusual and important addition to the growing literature of migration. Anyone wanting to understand the disaster of what is happening around us should read this book."—Caroline Moorehead
Author Bio
Lidia Tilotta is a journalist with RAI Regional News and Mediterraneo.