What book and mantra are passed down through the generations of Maria's family in the novel, Of Women and Salt?

María Isabel writes the “We are force”, a phrase lifted from a letter from Victor Hugo to the women of Cuba. The mantra and the book, Les Misérables, are passed down through the family, rediscovered by Jeanette when she visits her grandmother in Camagüey and finds the valuable edition. Jeanette adds her own message, reflective of the complexity of the women we encounter in the novel: “We are more than we think we are” (204).