New Releases by Edwidge Danticat

S''inspirant de l''essai homonyme de Camus, Edwige Danticat brosse le portrait d''artistes immigrés et d''intellectuels de tous pays, partagés entre la démocratie et la dictature, entre la liberté et la répression, entre la dette qu''ils ont envers leurs pays d''accueil et le sentiment de culpabilité qu''ils nourissent envers le pays de leurs racines, victimes de crimes qui les ont poussé à fuir, mais qui continue de hanter leur art. Portrait, mais aussi témoignage d''une situation politique qui perdure en Haïti. Histoire personnelle, mais aussi réflexion sur la création en exil, apportant la preuve qu''il n''est de vraie patrie, pour l''écrivain, que la littérature.

A New York Times Notable Book A Miami Herald Best Book of the Year In this deeply personal book, the celebrated Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat reflects on art and exile. Inspired by Albert Camus and adapted from her own lectures for Princeton University’s Toni Morrison Lecture Series, here Danticat tells stories of artists who create despite (or because of) the horrors that drove them from their homelands. Combining memoir and essay, these moving and eloquent pieces examine what it means to be an artist from a country in crisis. BONUS MATERIAL: This edition includes an excerpt from Edwidge Danticat''s Claire of the Sea Light.

À la suite du tremblement de terre ayant secoué Port-au-Prince le 12 janvier 2010, un garçonnet de 7 ans se retrouve coincé sous les décombres. Il faut huit jours avant que les secours n''arrivent à le libérer de sa prison. Huit jours pendant lesquels il survit en puisant dans les souvenirs de moments heureux qu''il a partagés avec sa famille et son copain Oscar, qui périt malheureusement sous les pierres. Sur chaque double page, l''enfant partage l''un de ces moments de bonheur qui l''aident à tenir le coup : les tournois de billes, les parties de cache-cache, les histoires que lui racontaient le coiffeur, les répétitions de la chorale, les promenades dans une campagne balayée par une douce pluie, les tours de vélo autour de la statue du Marron inconnu sise devant le palais présidentiel ou encore la dégustation de mangues bien juteuses.

Drawing from a wide range of authors, experts, and historical texts, this collection challenges historical stereotypes and counters 200 years of cultural myths and disinformation. These essays explain the background to the current crisis in Haiti, revealing the intertwined relationship between the United States and Haiti and the untold stories of the Haitian people’s resistance to U.S. aggression and occupations. Included are a time line, photo essay, author biographies, and bibliography. This revised edition also includes context surrounding the response to the tragic 2010 earthquake disaster.

Op de dag dat Edwidge ontdekt dat ze zwanger is, hoort ze dat haar vader ongeneeslijk ziek is. Ze neemt direct contact op met de broer van haar vader in Haïti. Oom Joseph is als een tweede vader voor Edwidge: ze woonde jarenlang bij hem in huis, tot ze op haar twaalfde herenigd kon worden met haar ouders in New York. Vol compassie en ontzag vertelt Edwidge het levensverhaal van de twee broers. Hoe oom Joseph haar opvoedde en hoe hij op een dag zijn stem verloor, waardoor hij niet meer kon preken in de kerk die hij zelf had gebouwd. En hoe haar ouders een nieuw leven begonnen in Amerika, waar ze voortdurend vreesden voor de veiligheid van familie en vrienden die in Haïti achterbleven. Edwidge Danticat schreef met Vaarwel, broer een diep ontroerend familierelaas over de levens en de dood van twee broers, en haar liefde voor hen beiden.

Taken after the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, the images in Tent Life: Haiti document the makeshift tent communities that Haitians have been forced to live in to survive. Gallery visited Haiti with seven other artists from New York, who all volunteered their time and talents to bring smiles to Haitians while photographing and filming their heartbreaking story. These portraits communicate the resilience, dignity and strength of the Haitian people surviving, living, working and vehemently not waiting for others to determine their fate.

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography A National Book Award Finalist A New York Times Notable Book From the age of four, award-winning writer Edwidge Danticat came to think of her uncle Joseph as her “second father,” when she was placed in his care after her parents left Haiti for America. And so she was both elated and saddened when, at twelve, she joined her parents and youngest brothers in New York City. As Edwidge made a life in a new country, adjusting to being far away from so many who she loved, she and her family continued to fear for the safety of those still in Haiti as the political situation deteriorated. In 2004, they entered into a terrifying tale of good people caught up in events beyond their control. Brother I''m Dying is an astonishing true-life epic, told on an intimate scale by one of our finest writers.

Ouvrage traduit avec le concours du Centre National du Livre. Ce roman poignant explore le monde le monde d''un Dewbreaker, un « briseur de rosée », shoukèt laroze en créole : ainsi étaient surnommés les hommes, en Haïti, du temps de Duvalier, qui pénétraient au petit matin chez les gens pour les conduire dans les prisons où ils seraient sauvagement torturés. « Ils brisent les gouttes de rosée puis ils brisent les os ». Nous rencontrons ce personnage à Brooklyn, alors qu''il a déjà un certain âge. C''est un homme tranquille, sa femme l''adore, sa fille est une jeune artiste branchée, il travaille dur dans son salon de coiffure. C''est un gentil propriétaire qui loge trois travailleurs, eux aussi originaires de Haïti, au rez-de-chaussée de sa maison. Il est connu dans le voisinage ; certains ne se doutent de rien, d''autres le craignent ou croient le reconnaître, à cause de sa terrible cicatrice en travers du visage. Tout au long du roman, les destins se croisent. On va et vient entre le Haïti de 1960 et aujourd''hui. Tel un puzzle macabre, le passé du tortionnaire est vu par ses proches, ses victimes ou leur famille, jusqu''à son dernier acte contre un prêtre. Puis sa rencontre avec une femme qui va lui offrir une sorte de rédemption -quoique imparfaite mais qui le changera à jamais : « une graine plantée dans le roc venait enfin de prendre racine ». Un roman sur la sagesse, l''amour, le remords et l''espoir, sur les révoltes tant personnelles que politiques, sur les compromis que l''on fait pour survivre malgré les blessures infligées par l''histoire. Danticat réussit l''exploit d''attirer parfois la sympathie du lecteur sur l''ex-tortionnaire et nous plonge dans les entrailles du noir passé de cette île. Elle nous amène à nous interroger sur les notions de bien et de mal et sur les limites et la nature du pardon.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A "brilliant book, undoubtedly the best one yet by an enormously talented writer” (The Washington Post Book World), about love, remorse, and hope; of personal and political rebellions; and of the compromises we make to move beyond the most intimate brushes with history. In this award-winning, bestselling work of fiction that moves between Haiti in the 1960s and New York in the present day, we meet an unusual man who is harboring a vital, dangerous secret. He is a quiet man, a good father and husband, a fixture in his Brooklyn neighborhood, a landlord and barber with a terrifying scar across his face. As the book unfolds, we enter the lives of those around him, and his secret is slowly revealed. Edwidge Danticat’s brilliant exploration of the “dew breaker”—or torturer—is an unforgettable story from one of America’s most essential writers.

"En 1937 el dictador dominicano Leónidas Trujillo desata una feroz persecución contra los haitianos. En ella pierden la vida cientos de hombres, mujeres y niños que han llegado a República Dominicana buscando trabajo. Algunos pocos logran huir y salvar su vida. Pero será una vida nostálgica, incompleta, marcada para siempre por los fantasmas de los muertos. En esta encrucijada histórica se enredan los destinos de Amabelle y Sebastien, protagonistas de Cosecha de huesos. A la edad de ocho años, y tras la trágica muerte de sus padres, Amabelle es recogida por un coronel del ejército dominicano y su esposa, que la llevan a vivir con ellos. Allí crece junto a su ama, la señora Valencia, a quien sirve como empleada y quiere como amiga. Pero el gran amor de su vida es Sebastien, un joven haitiano que trabaja en las plantaciones de caña. Amabelle sueña con hacer su vida junto a Sebastien, pero antes de que pueda lograrlo se desata el horror. Todo su mundo de afectos y de esperanzas se derrumba en una sola noche de huída. Y empieza para ella otro que tendrá que reconstruir de la nada. Cosecha de huesos es un relato que habla de amor, de lealtad, y de barbarie, y una exploración de la violencia y sus más profundas repercusiones en la vida de los hombres."--Descripción del editor.

It is 1937 and Amabelle Désir, a young Haitian woman living in the Dominican Republic, has built herself a life as the servant and companion of the wife of a wealthy colonel. She and Sebastien, a cane worker, are deeply in love and plan to marry. But Amabelle''s world collapses when a wave of genocidal violence, driven by Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, leads to the slaughter of Haitian workers. Amabelle and Sebastien are separated, and she desperately flees the tide of violence for a Haiti she barely remembers. Already acknowledged as a classic, this harrowing story of love and survival—from one of the most important voices of her generation—is an unforgettable memorial to the victims of the Parsley Massacre and a testimony to the power of human memory.

In five sections—Childhood, Migration, Half/First Generation, Return, and Future—the thirty-three contributors to this anthology write movingly, often hauntingly, of their lives in Haiti and the United States. Their dyaspora, much like a butterfly''s fluctuating path, is a shifting landscape in which there is much travel between two worlds, between their place of origin and their adopted land. This compilation of essays and poetry brings together Haitian-Americans of different generations and backgrounds, linking the voices for whom English is a first language and others whose dreams will always be in French and Kreyòl. Community activists, scholars, visual artists and filmmakers join renowned journalists, poets, novelists and memoirists to produce a poignant portrayal of lives in transition. Edwidge Danticat, in her powerful introduction, pays tribute to Jean Dominique, a sometime participant in the Haitian dyaspora and a recent martyr to Haiti''s troubled politics, and the many members of the dyaspora who refused to be silenced. Their stories confidently and passionately illustrate the joys and heartaches, hopes and aspirations of a relatively new group of immigrants belonging to two countries that have each at times maligned and embraced them.

Una oleada de violencia tiene lugar en Port-au-Prince, Haiti, como motivo de nuevas elecciones. Celiane Esperance es una joven haitiana que, junto a su madre, se ve en peligro de muerte. Este es el intrigante y apasionante relato de como se transforma la perspectiva que tiene la joven frente a su país y a su propia vida.

In After the Dance, one of Haiti’s most renowned daughters returns to her homeland, taking readers on a stunning, exquisitely rendered journey beyond the hedonistic surface of Carnival and into its deep heart. Edwidge Danticat had long been scared off from Carnival by a loved one, who spun tales of people dislocating hips from gyrating with too much abandon, losing their voices from singing too loudly, going deaf from the clamor of immense speakers, and being punched, stabbed, pummeled, or fondled by other lustful revelers. Now an adult, she resolves to return and exorcise her Carnival demons. She spends the week before Carnival in the area around Jacmel, exploring the rolling hills and lush forests and meeting the people who live and die in them. During her journeys she traces the heroic and tragic history of the island, from French colonists and Haitian revolutionaries to American invaders and home-grown dictators. Danticat also introduces us to many of the performers, artists, and organizers who re-create the myths and legends that bring the Carnival festivities to life. When Carnival arrives, we watch as she goes from observer to participant and finally loses herself in the overwhelming embrace of the crowd. Part travelogue, part memoir, this is a lyrical narrative of a writer rediscovering her country along with a part of herself. It’s also a wonderful introduction to Haiti’s southern coast and to the true beauty of Carnival.

Now in its second year, "The Beacon Best" continues to be the alternative literary annual, this year edited by the rising literary star Edwidge Danticat, and featuring the electrifying work of Julia Alvarez, Sherman Alexie, Ai, Isabel Allende, Fred D''Aguiar, Ifeona Fulani, Walter Mosley, Nicholas Samaras, Lois Ann Yamanaka and others.

Set in Haiti''s impoverished villages and in New York''s Haitian community, this is the story of Sophie Caco, who was conceived in an act of violence, abandoned by her mother and then summoned to America. In New York, Sophie discovers that Haiti imposes harsh rules on its own. (OneSource)

Il y a en Haïti un rite ancestral : le conteur dit " Krik ?" ", l''auditoire répond " Krak !... " et l''histoire commence. En romancière inspirée, Edwidge Danticat connaît les rêves et les pensées secrètes de tous les personnages. Avec eux, elle retrace soixante-dix années de l''histoire de Haîti, sa patrie hantée par la pauvreté, la rage de survivre, la violence aveugle, les abominations de la torture. Ses évocations de l''enfance de la prostitution, de la magie, de la mort, dérangent autant qu''elles fascinent. On navigue sur un fleuve de sang, de lumière et d''espoir.

Nine powerful stories about life under Haiti''s dictatorships: the terrorism of the Tonton Macoutes; the slaughtering of hope and the resiliency of love; about those who fled to America to give their children a better life and those who stayed behind in the villages; about the linkages of generations of women through the magical tradition of storytelling.