First published 2010
Ruth, a Haitian-Syrian merchant, feels death closing in as she reflects on her life in Port-au-Prince. When news of Ruth's murder reaches Paris, her niece Catherine abandons her career as a professional pianist to return home to Haiti. Catherine's mother Rose, gifted with empathic abilities, took her own life in Canadian exile during the brutal Duvalier years. Meanwhile, Romulus, a former Konpa music star struggling with addiction, walks free from a Port-au-Prince jail after rebels storm the prison. He searches desperately for redemption in a country torn apart. An Irish seer named Elsie connects their stories, having arrived in Haiti in 1847 fleeing famine in search of mystical guidance. These fractured lives span continents and decades, from middle-class Haiti to working-class French Canada to expatriate Paris to the peat bogs of Ireland. Each character carries spiritual wounds that bind them together across time and space in ways they cannot yet understand.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, magical-realism, 21st-century, family-drama, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, redemption-arc
Setting: Canada, Haiti, Ireland, Paris, Port-au-Prince
Period: 1847, Duvalier Years, Present Day
352 pages · Paperback · Peepal Tree Press
Content warnings: mental-illness, suicide