New Releases by Edwidge Danticat

From the national bestselling author of Brother, I’m Dying and The Dew Breaker: a “fiercely beautiful” novel (Los Angeles Times) that brings us deep into the intertwined lives of a small seaside town where a little girl, the daughter of a fisherman, has gone missing. Just as her father makes the wrenching decision to send her away for a chance at a better life, Claire Limyè Lanmè—Claire of the Sea Light—suddenly disappears. As the people of the Haitian seaside community of Ville Rose search for her, painful secrets, haunting memories, and startling truths are unearthed. In this stunning novel about intertwined lives, Edwidge Danticat crafts a tightly woven, breathtaking tapestry that explores the mysterious bonds we share—with the natural world and with one another.

Haiti, long noted for poverty and repression, has a powerful and too-often-overlooked history of resistance. Women in Haiti have played a large role in changing the balance of political and social power, even as they have endured rampant and devastating state-sponsored violence, including torture, rape, abuse, illegal arrest, disappearance, and assassination. In Walking on Fire, Beverly Bell, an activist and an expert on Haitian social movements, brings together thirty-eight oral histories from a diverse group of Haitian women. The interviewees include, for example, a former prime minister, an illiterate poet, a leading feminist theologian, and a vodou dancer. Defying victim status despite gender- and state-based repression, they tell how Haiti''s poor and dispossessed women have fought for their personal and collective survival. The women''s powerfully moving accounts of horror and heroism can best be characterized by the Creole word istwa, which means both "story" and "history." They combine theory with case studies concerning resistance, gender, and alternative models of power. Photographs of the women who have lived through Haiti''s recent past accompany their words to further personalize the interviews in Walking on Fire.

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.

Rêvant d'Amérique, les parents d'Edwidge Danticat quittent Haïti en 1973. Edwidge, qui n'a que quatre ans, sera élevée par son oncle Joseph, pasteur que la maladie a rendu muet mais qui n'a rien perdu de sen extraordinaire charisme. Lorsqu'elle débarque à son tour à New York, quelques années plus tard, les parents qu'elle retrouve sont devenus pour elle des quasi-inconnus. Et tandis qu'ils essaient de recomposer une famille, leur parviennent les échos d'une situation politique de plus en plus inquiétante en Haïti, L'oncle Joseph échappera de justesse au régime terrible des " tontons macoutes ". En 2004, à quatre-vingt-un ans, malade et diminué, il arrive enfin à Miami - mais ce qu'il croit être son salut va devenir son ultime calvaire. Edwidge Danticat, en rendant hommage aux siens, livre une réflexion sur les liens du sang et la violence avec laquelle l'histoire peut parfois les défaire. C'est le portrait de quelques hommes et femmes qui s'acharnent à offrir aux leurs un avenir meilleur et sont emportés dans une ronde tragique, d'exil en exil et d'un adieu à l'autre. C'est enfin, par la grâce d'une prose juste et pudique, la preuve qu'il n'est de vraie patrie, pour l'écrivain, que la littérature.

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography A National Book Award Finalist A New York Times Notable Book A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century 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.

Arriving one year after the Haitian-American''s first novel (Breath, Eyes, Memory) alerted critics to her compelling voice, these 10 stories, some of which have appeared in small literary journals, confirm Danticat''s reputation as a remarkably gifted writer. Examining the lives of ordinary Haitians, particularly those struggling to survive under the brutal Duvalier regime, Danticat illuminates the distance between people''s desires and the stifling reality of their lives. A profound mix of Catholicism and voodoo spirituality informs the tales, bestowing a mythic importance on people described in the opening story, "Children of the Sea," as those "in this world whose names don''t matter to anyone but themselves." The ceaseless grip of dictatorship often leads men to emotionally abandon their families, like the husband in "A Wall of Fire Rising," who dreams of escaping in a neighbor''s hot-air balloon. The women exhibit more resilience, largely because of their insistence on finding meaning and solidarity through storytelling; but Danticat portrays these bonds with an honesty that shows that sisterhood, too, has its power plays. In the book''s final piece, "Epilogue: Women Like Us," she writes: "Are there women who both cook and write? Kitchen poets, they call them. They slip phrases into their stew and wrap meaning around their pork before frying it. They make narrative dumplings and stuff their daughter''s mouths so they say nothing more." The stories inform and enrich one another, as the female characters reveal a common ancestry and ties to the fictional Ville Rose. In addition to the power of Danticat''s themes, the book is enhanced by an element of suspense (we''re never certain, for example, if a rickety boat packed with refugees introduced in the first tale will reach the Florida coast). Spare, elegant and moving, these stories cohere into a superb collection.

"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.