Krik? Krak! (Vintage Contemporaries)

When Haitians tell a story, they say "Krik?" and the eager listeners answer "Krak!" In Krik? Krak! In her second novel, Edwidge Danticat establishes herself as the latest heir to that narrative tradition with nine stories that encompass both the cruelties and the high ideals of Haitian life. They tell of women who continue loving behind prison walls and in the face of unfathomable loss; of a people who resist the brutality of their rulers through the powers of imagination. The result is a collection that outrages, saddens, and transports the reader with its sheer beauty.

Since the publication of her debut work Breath, Eyes, Memory in 1994, Edwidge Danticat has won praise as one of

America's brightest, most graceful and vibrant young writers.  In this novel, and in her National Book Award-nominated collection of stories, Krik? Krak!, Danticat evokes the powerful imagination and rich narrative tradition of her native Haiti, and in the process records the suffering, triumphs, and wisdom of its people.  Author Paule Marshall has said of Danticat, "A silenced Haiti has once again found its literary voice."

Born in Haiti in 1969, Danticat, like the protagonist of her novel Breath, Eyes, Memory, at the age of twelve left her

birthplace for New York to reunite with her parents.  She earned a degree in French Literature from Barnard College, where she won the 1995 Woman of Achievement Award, and later an MFA from Brown University.  More recently, she has received an ongoing grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Foundation.

Critical acclaim and awards for her first novel included a Granta Regional Award for the Best Young American Novelists, a Pushcart Prize and fiction awards from Essence and Seventeen magazines.  She was chosen by Harper's Bazaar as one of 20 people in their twenties who will make a difference, and was featured in a New York Times Magazine article that named "30 Under 30" creative people to watch.  This winter, Jane magazine named her one of the "15 Gutsiest Women of the Year."

Danticat's second novel, The Farming of Bones, based upon the 1937 massacre of Haitians at the border of the

Dominican Republic, will be published in September 1998 by Soho Press.

Children of the Sea

Nineteen Thirty-Seven

A Wall of Fire Rising

Night Women

Between the Pool and the Gardenias

The Missing Peace

Seeing Things Simply

New York Day Women

Caroline's Wedding

Epilogue: Women Like Us