Haiti Noir (Akashic Noir)

"A wide-ranging collection from the beloved but besieged Caribbean island. […] The 36th entry in Akashic's Noir series (which ranges from Bronx to Delhi to Twin Cities) is beautifully edited, with a spectrum of voices."

--Kirkus Reviews

"Danticat has succeeded in assembling a group portrait of Haitian culture and resilience that is cause for celebration."

--Publishers Weekly

"A solid contribution to the [noir] series, especially for its showcasing of a setting not commonly portrayed in crime fiction."

--Booklist

“Who can ever judge how important Danticat has been to Americans understanding and re-evaluating Haitis position and role in the hemisphere? Not just as a novelist and essayist in her own right, but as editor and guiding force behind this collection of short stories and the re-publication and English translation of the Chauvet triptych, the Haitian-born Danticat has brought her countrys literature back into the world of English-speakers. Filled with delights and surprises, Haiti Noir, taken as a whole, provides a profound portrait of the country, from its crises to its triumphs, from the tiny bouks of the countryside to the shanties of the sprawling bidonvilles. Danticat herself has a lovely story in the collection, and permits two distinguished foreign writers on Haiti, Madison Smartt Bell and Mark Kurlansky, to slide in there among all the brilliant Haitians.”

--Daily Beast

Includes brand-new stories by: Edwidge Danticat, Rodney Saint-Eloi, Madison Smartt Bell, Gary Victor, M.J. Fièvre, Marvin Victor, Yanick Lahens, Louis-Philipe Dalembert, Kettly Mars, Marie Ketsia Theodore-Pharel, Evelyne Trouillot, Katia Ulysse, Ibi Aanu Zoboi, Nadine Pinede, and others.

Haiti has a tragic history and continues to be one of the most destitute places on the planet, especially in the aftermath of the earthquake. Here, however, Edwidge Danticat reveals that even while the subject matter remains dark, the caliber of Haitian writing is of the highest order.

Edwidge Danticat was born in Haiti and moved to the United States when she was twelve. She is the author of Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah Book Club selection, Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist, and the novel-in-stories The Dew Breaker. Her memoir, Brother, I'm Dying, was a 2007 finalist for the National Book Award and a 2008 winner of a National Book Critics Circle Award. She is a 2009 recipient of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grant and lives in Miami.