Deeper Than the Ocean

by Mirta Ojito

A moving multi-generational novel about the enduring power of a mother’s love, the ripple effect of secrets, and the strength of family bonds from Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Mirta Ojito

One hundred years after the shipwreck of the Valbanera, known to history as the “poor man’s Titanic,” Mara Denis gets an assignment to report on the Canary Islands, where, she has been told, her ancestors lived before they moved to Cuba. Unexpectedly, she discovers that the grandmother her mother cherished was listed among the dead of the Valbanera, years before Mara’s mother was even born. This fateful twist changes everything Mara thought she knew about her family and herself, and sends her on a quest to find the truth about her family. If her great-grandmother is a ghost, who is she and where did she come from?

In spare, beautiful writing and a dual narrative, the author transports the reader to the Canary Islands and Cuba in the early part of the twentieth century and New York and Key West in the present. This epic tale of a young woman’s intense passion for her beloved as well as the redeeming power of family secrets at last uncovered will leave readers wanting more when they reach the last page.

This moving, sweeping novel is perfect for fans of Isabel Allende, Julia Alvarez, and Kristin Hannah.

Genres: Family, Fiction

352 pages, Paperback

Published November 4, 2025

About the author

Mirta Ojito is a journalist, professor, and author who has worked at the Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald, and the New York Times. 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 articles about race in America for the New York Times, Ojito was an assistant professor of journalism at Columbia University for almost nine years. She is the author of two award-winning nonfiction books: Finding Mañana: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus and Hunting Season: Immigration and Murder in an All-American Town. Currently, Ojito is a senior director on the NBC News Standards team working at Telemundo Network,
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.

Reviews

[Armando Lucas Correa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mirta Ojito heightens the historical novel to a level of credibility and emotional connection rarely seen.

Deeper Than the Ocean is one of those books that stay with you forever. With her journalistic precision and exquisite storytelling, Mirta Ojito captivates the reader with characters that move between love and loss, between exodus and reunion. An unforgettable book.

With her powerful narrative, Mirta Ojito takes you by hand from the United States to the Canary Islands, from the Canary Islands to Cuba, and from Cuba back to the states in a novel about painful losses and sweet discoveries. A renowned journalist who joyfully enters the world of fiction in a masterful way.

[Laura (thenerdygnomelife)]

"Deeper than the Ocean" is a dual timeline, dual POV story that is both engaging and thought-provoking. Centered around the story of Catalina, a young woman who is steered into an unwanted arranged marriage, and her great-granddaughter Mara, who decades later seeks to unravel the mystery of Catalina's history (and the family lineage) after the sinking of the Valbanera. The book digs into multigenerational trauma and family relationships while weaving in a historical context that gently teaches without feeling heavy. The sense of place is excellent — I walked away with a clear sense of the Canary Islands and Cuba — and the writing engaged me easily. The characters are well developed and easy to connect with, brought to life easily by Kim Ramirez's strong narration. While this isn’t Mirta Orjioto’s first book, it appears to be her first foray into fiction, and I hope she keeps going down this path because I’ll happily pick up her next novel. This was a fantastic and entertaining read — 4.5 stars, rounded up.

Thank you to Harper Collins, NetGalley, and Mirta Ojito for an advance copy for honest review.

[Sally cosyhomelibrary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is both beautiful and haunting.
Spanning over a century across different continents this multigenerational story is breathtaking in its exploration of love, loss, immigration and generational trauma.

With a dual narrative we follow Mara in the present day who is sent on an assignment to the Canary Islands. While there she begins to look in to her family history, believing her Great Grandmother was born there. She discovers that the matriarch so loved by her family was said to have been aboard, The Valbanera, the tragic shipwreck known as “The poor man’s titanic”, that sunk off the coast of Cuba along with her husband and baby. This twist shocks Mara in to the need to discover her own roots and family history, and the secrets that have been passed through the generations. If her Great Grandmother was aboard the ship then how did Mara come in to being? The narrative switches between Mara and Catalina, her Great Grandmother, and piece by piece we begin to unravel the mystery.

We get to know both women, who despite living decades apart share many of the same hopes, fears, and dreams.

This novel spoke to me as a new mother, the depth of a mother’s love is so poignantly described, the way our hearts change shape and the enormous weight the love carries. The pain on the page felt raw and visceral and I felt as though I was living in Catalina’s story. The author speaks so candidly about the fear of emigration, of how it feels to travel on a boat away from the only land you have ever known as home. Using her own firsthand experience in emigrating from Cuba as a teenager, we are swept up in emotion and this added so much depth to the story.

I am so grateful to have had the chance to read this before publication, thank you to NetGalley and Union Square and co for the eARC.
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Turquoise Brennan · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing read. similar to BlackCake but this one is about The Spanish and Cubans.
you are still left with so much mystery at the end in a good way.
this book could be a movie !

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher and the author for this advanced copy!

I loved the historical fiction, dual-timeline flow of this book, but what I didn't expect was the beautiful and clear prose on quiet grief, and how it affects not only us, but generations to come. I love a story about a strong women, and all of the women in this story were incredibly strong and brave to continue to love again, live again, try again. It was a beautiful take on immigration as well, without it getting super political. When I think that I am going through the worst and I'm not sure I can continue, I will think of Catalina and all the other women in this family, and I will hopefully remember to be like them.

[Sydney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeper than the Ocean is a sweeping story about family, heritage, and what home means. Told from two POVs, Catalina (past) and Mirta (present) we slowly learn the history of a family and how events that shaped the past still haunt the living today.

Atmospheric and emotional, the hardships endured by Catalina provide the heart of the story. Set in the Canary Islands, then Cuba, I learned parts of history I had not known since I am fairly ignorant when it comes to these areas of the world.

For anyone who likes multi generational stories and how the past can influence and shape the future.

4.5⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Union Square & Co for the ebook in exchange for an honest review

[Leah W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeper than the Ocean was a fantastic book. I listened to the Audiobook, and the casting of Kim Ramirez was a great choice. If you're a fan of Victoria Hislop, you'll enjoy this book!

This story follows a dual timeline of Mara, a Cuban refugee turned journalist, and her Great Grandmother (GG) Catalina. Mara's mother asks her to get a copy of her GG's birth certificate, and it leads to Mara uncovering her GG's name in the death records of a ship that sunk off the coast of Cuba - something that can't be for her family to exist.

It touches on simple lives, loves, loss, trauma, uncertainty in the place you live and the hardships to escape.

It's clear author Mirta Ojito did a lot of research, and is a brilliant writer. The historic references were on point. She pulled me right into the stories, and all the emotions out of me.

My one little (big) grievance was how Mirta described the scent of a MMC - I simply could not hold ANY affection for him after finding out he smelled of musk, sweat, ONIONS, and lavender. What a foul combination to imagine.

Many thanks to the Author, Publisher, and NetGalley for the ALC!

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly interesting multi-generational story based on fact . I loved the Spanish language base & the settings in Spain & Cuba! This is Ojito's first fictional book & I hope she writes more. She already is a Pulitzer winning journalist.

[Amy Dance · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
On a writing assignment t to the Canary Islands, Mara's mother asks her to find her grandmother's birth certificate. This task leads into a greater mystery, when she finds her grandmother's name listed as a shipwreck victim before her mother was born. Mara's search takes her back to Cuba and unexpected answers.Taking place in Canary Islands, Cuba & Spain, this is multi- generational story of love, family & generational trauma.

[Kennedy Purcell · Rating 4 out of 5]

🇨🇺🌞ARC review 🌊💙

“Hope, Catalina understood in that moment, could be even crueler than grief”

A poignant, lyrical, and heartbreakingly beautiful story from Mirta Ojito. This was my very first ARC from NetGalley and I’m honored to have had the chance to read it before publication. I was initially drawn to the cover because I can’t resist any book with “ocean” in the title, but I had no idea just how much the title, motifs, and characters would resonate with me by the end of the novel.

Deeper Than the Ocean is a dual timeline, multigenerational story that explores themes such as family heritage, generational trauma, mother-daughter relationships, love, loss, and migration/exile. Within the first couple of chapters I knew I would absolutely love the dual timeline/POVs, but I wasn’t expecting to be so enthralled by the historical details. I’m ashamed to say I knew next to nothing about Cuba, the Canary Islands, or the Valbanera shipwreck before reading this book. I absorbed more historical facts from Mirta Ojito than I ever learned from a textbook in school. Repeat after me, historical fiction can teach readers even more than nonfiction!

As I read the novel and slowly weaved together the identity and pasts of all the women in the lineage between Mara and her great grandmother Catalina, I realized that this story transcends solving a family lineage mystery. The ocean motif, and more specifically the Valbanera shipwreck, symbolizes how deeply family secrets can be buried and how trauma can be unknowingly passed down to future generations. One moment that brought me to tears was Mara’s epiphany that the emotional distance between her and her mother was inherited pain, and that understanding can always replace resentment. In that way, Mara breaks the generational curse and emotional gap that is created when Catalina makes secret sacrifices for Carmen that further alienate them from each other.

“I was beginning to understand that many of her character flaws were the product of a childhood lived in the shadow of secrets, shame, and fear of illness of death”

Thank you Mirta Ojito for showcasing the emotional resiliency of women and for speaking up through vivid storytelling about those who seek refuge away from their homeland. Whether it be during the early 1900’s on the Canary Islands, the mid 1900’s in Cuba, or the 21st century in the USA, all of the female protagonists in this story showcased strength in survival and tenderness in vulnerability. I waited a month for my first ARC, and this book came at a time when I feel, like Catalina did, that everything was out of my control. This case of “right book, right time” instilled a sense of confidence in me that we can do hard things, a woman’s strongest weapon is love for herself and others, and there’s always so much to be grateful for.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Happy release day to Deeper Than the Ocean by Mirta Ojito! Set between the Canary Islands and Cuba, this novel follows multiple generations of women affected by love, loss, and a fractured sense of belonging.

What I Liked:
- Getting to know the Canary Islands. I love books set throughout Spain, but this is the first one to take me to the Canary Islands, off the coast of northwestern Africa. These seven islands are characterized by unique weather patterns and a mixture of migrants from Spain and northern Africa. I enjoyed getting to learn about this unique area and how people around the turn of the 20th century made a life there… or dreamed of traveling to Cuba.
- Motherhood and family ties. One of the major themes throughout this novel is the relationship between mothers and their children. In the 1910s and onward, Catalina is the main protagonist, and she experiences passionate love, motherhood, and much loss. What is her relationship with her children like? How does that impact future generations within her family tree? Where does that leave Mara in 2019?
- Sense of place and identity. When Catalina moves from the Canary Islands to Cuba (an eventful and traumatic move in itself), it also unearths her sense of belonging. This is compounded years later when Mara and her parents leave Cuba to make a new life in the United States. Now in her 50s, Mara has moved once again, this time to Spain. Where do she and her mother ultimately belong? Where are their family roots hidden?
- Uncovering generational trauma. Another inherited trait is Mara’s deep fear of the water. Intergenerational trauma is real, and in Mara’s case, it stems from the mysteries behind her great-grandmother Catalina. Learning the truth from so many decades ago may be the only way to heal.

What Didn’t Work for Me:
- So many tragedies! This novel starts off with a profound sense of family and loss, and then there is a forbidden romance. But once Catalina boards the ship to Cuba, there is so much tragedy that she suffers. It can make for a heavy read, especially in the latter half of the book.

Audiobook:
Kim Ramirez does a beautiful job of narrating Deeper Than the Ocean. Her voice is gentle yet absorbing, making for an entrancing listen.

Final Thoughts
Deeper Than the Ocean is moving novel about family, love, loss, and identity. From the late 1800s through 2019, it follows multiple generations as they relocate and start over, again and again. I truly enjoyed this novel and hope to read more from Mirta Ojito.

Special thanks to Union Square & Co., HarperCollins Audio Canada, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

* Please read my full review on my blog, Amanda's Book Corner! *

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 2019, Mara, a transplanted Cuban refugee from America was sent on assignment to Tenerife in the Canary Islands. She was now a freelance reporter based in her hometown of Salandar, Spain and was an expert on immigration. There seemed to be an uptick on boat people fleeing from North Africa to the Islands and her editor wanted the story. Of course, she couldn't go without notifying her mother in Miami. She was a 55 year old widow with a 20 year old son, but if she didn't call her mother, her mother would call her and that never turned out well. When Mara told her mother that she was flying to Tenerife, she received another assignment. Her mother wanted Mara to find her maternal grandmother's birth certificate so that she could apply for Spanish citizenship. The only thing she could remember was her grandmother's parents' names. Mara promised that she would try to research her mother's request, but didn't give it too much thought after beginning to interview refugees for her story.
In 1888, Catalina's story began. Her mother and grandmother came to Tenerife on a ship from Spain, and the man who became her father met them at the port-her parents married a few days after meeting and they moved to La Palma, a small dot in the Canary Islands, where her father owned a farm. They had three girls, one being Catalina. At the age of six, she fell in love with Juan, the boy down the road, and he with her-they always assumed that they would get married someday. But her father disliked him and summoned an acquaintance to their house to marry Catalina and take her to Cuba, where he lived. Before they returned to Cuba, they had a daughter, Carmen, who Catalina loved. The family finally boarded the boat, but before they reached their destination a tragedy occurred that upended all of their lives, setting Catalina on a completely different path.

Ojito tells both women's stories in alternate chapters so deftly that I found that while leaving one story was painful, I quickly became immersed in the other story. As Mara researches Catalina, her great-grandmother, we get a glimpse of the rich and unexpected history of an amazing woman who can now only be traced through genealogical documents and archives. To add a deeper dimension to this novel, it is actually based on the true events occurring in Ojito's family, and the author, herself, is a renowned journalist. If you have ever attempted to trace your family stories, you will be fascinated with this book.

[Sheila The Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deeper Than the Ocean by Mirta Ojito follows journalist Mara Denis as she uncovers a century-old family mystery tied to the 1919 shipwreck of the Valbanera. Moving between past and present, the story explores identity, love, and how family secrets can echo across generations.

This was an interesting piece of historical fiction. The writing was thoughtful and easy to get lost in, and the author did a great job bringing the beauty of the settings to life. I could picture the scenes so clearly, and I loved learning about the cultures of both Spain and Cuba. The alternating timelines pulled me in at first, but later on, the pacing slowed down and I found it harder to stay engaged. I also didn’t feel a strong emotional connection to most of the characters, which made it a bit harder to fully invest in their stories.

What really stood out to me was learning about the Valbanera shipwreck, something I’d never heard of before. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy historical fiction, it always teaches me something new. The audiobook narration didn’t quite land for me, though. It felt a little flat and might have been why I struggled to connect emotionally. Overall, I’d give this one three stars. It’s well written, educational, and I think it will really click with readers who enjoy slow, reflective stories about family and history. I’d definitely check out more from Mirta Ojito.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given the setting, the inclusion of forgotten historical events, and an entire storyline about uncovering family history, this book seemed like a sure bet for me. Unfortunately, I spent most of the book being frustrated by Catalina's immature and selfish decisions and behavior. I didn't have a high opinion of Mara's mother, either, though at least she wasn't nearly as much of a presence in the novel. Every time she called Mara, she was demanding and was often unreasonable. I'm glad Mara felt by the end of the novel that she could understand her mother better, but I just found her annoying. Also, Mara's quest seemed to wrap up far too conveniently.

I had never heard about the Valbanera before, and I am grateful to the author for bringing renewed attention to that tragedy.

Thank you to Union Square & Co and to NetGalley for the early read.

[Francisca Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeper Than the Ocean by Mirta Ojito is beautifully written. I really enjoyed Catalina’s story. Mara’s was also interesting, especially seeing if and how she would uncover her family’s history, but parts of it were too flowery and dragged on for too long. I also did not get a clear sense of who she was in comparison to the rest of her family.

Kim Ramirez did a great job narrating, although she pronounced Cuba correctly only once (as a fellow Cuban, I am naturally sensitive to that).

Thank you to HarperCollins for providing me with an ALC.

[Mabel Junco · Rating 5 out of 5]

This magnificent novel has drama, romance, mystery and history. The details in the story make it impossible to put the book down.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reporter unravels her own family history and secrets in this saga of immigration that takes your from Spain, to the Canary Islands, to Cuba, to the United States.

[Rickie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written and haunting, this is a moving exploration of love and grief. My only criticism is that the pacing felt uneven at times, dragging a bit in places.

[Elisabeth M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found so much beauty in Deeper Than the Ocean, a generational saga that touches upon the complexities of woman- and motherhood across Spain, Cuba, and the United States. Our protagonists, each from different decades, face oppressive traditions, regimes and trauma, but also find moments of meaning and happiness. Mirta Ojito writes brilliantly as she floats between perspectives and timelines, and the story is engaging as we uncover century-old secrets and mystery of our main characters’s great-grandmother.
Ojito describes the sea, islands and trees with such expressive care and love, and her descriptions of foods and smells (especially cafe con leche) is almost visceral. This novel is a powerful testament to grief and life that keeps persevering. Knowing Ojito’s personal connections to this story made the stakes feel higher, and the pain all that much heartbreaking.
As we also learn that the story about the Valbanera ship was true, Ojito brings the readers into this tragedy with pure empathy. The almost-forgotten events of the Valbanera is a cautionary tale that needs to be highlighted in history and not erased.
Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!