Synopses & Reviews
Lisette, a Saint-Domingue-born Creole slave and daughter of an African-born
bossale, has inherited not only the condition of slavery but the traumatic memory of the Middle Passage as well. The stories told to her by her grandmother and godmother, including the horrific voyage aboard the infamous slave ship
Rosalie, have become part of her own story, the one she tells in this haunting novel by the acclaimed Haitian writer Évelyne Trouillot.
Inspired by the colonial tale of an African midwife who kept a cord of some seventy knots, each one marking a child she had killed at birth, the novel transports us back to Saint-Domingue, before it became Haiti. The year is 1750, and a rash of poisonings is sowing fear among the plantation masters, already unsettled by the unrest caused by Makandal, the legendary Maroon leader. Through this tumultuous time, Lisette struggles to maintain her dignity and to imagine a future for her unborn child. In telling Lisettes story, Trouillot gives the revolution that will soon rock the island a human face and at long last sheds light on the invisible women and men of Haitian history.
The original French edition of Rosalie linfâme received the Prix Soroptimist de la romancière francophone, honoring a novel written by a woman from a French-speaking country which showcases the cultural and literary diversity of the French-speaking world.
Review
“A lyrically written novella on love, loss, and the creation of home by captive African women and men out of the horror of the Middle Passage. A wonderful contribution to the corpus of Francophone women writers in the Caribbean.”—T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies and French, Vanderbilt University
Review
"In language both sumptuous and biting, Haitian university professor Trouillot gives us insight into New World slavery by telling the story of a Creole slave in 1750 Saint-Domingue."—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal
Review
"An uplifting homage to people loving one another and creating relationships under the most dire of circumstances."—Historical Novel Society
Review
"Those who read Trouillot's novel in the English can do so as a result of the astute choices made by translator M.A. Salvadon and her sensitivity to the subject matter of the original text. . . . She has done the good deed and work of enabling more readers to access the work of the versatile and prolific contemporary Haitian writer, Évelyne Trouillot."—Danielle Legros Georges, Women's Review of Books
Review
“The principal merit of Kettly Marss novel
Savage Seasons is in making us feel a dictatorships intimate grip on its subjects. . . .
Savage Seasons is a novel about the widespread abandonment of freedom by a society that has become
macoute, where dictatorship leads to collective, accepted madness.”—Christian Tortel,
Le Monde
Review
“A breathless novel that combines fiction and reality with both dexterity and pugnacity.”—Brune
Review
“A fine feminist and political novel that plunges into a country where ‘nobody dies a natural death. As she reveals the mechanisms of this totalitarian regime, Kettly Mars confirms the energy of Haitian literature, which includes, besides Dany Laferrière or Lyonel Trouillot, remarkable women as well.”—Le Nouvel Observateur
Review
“[Savage Seasons] makes clear the Haitian misfortune beyond pathetic clichés for those who want to understand a country that suffers not only from the cruelty of nature but also from the violence of political history.”—La Vie
Review
“Without concessions and writing in an incisive style, [Kettly Mars] claims the wealth of her multicultural heritage as she at the same time denounces its quirks.”—Le Quotidien du Medecin
Synopsis
Port-au-Prince, the 1960s: Duvalier and his militia are systematically eliminating opponents to the regime. Daniel Leroy, editor in chief of the opposition newspaper, has just been arrested. To find out what has become of him, his wife, Nirvah, visits Raoul Vincent, secretary of state at the Office of Public Safety. This fearsome head of the secret police is instantly smitten, and to ensure her husbands survival and protect her family, Nirvah submits to the officials desires. Becoming the mistress of a strongman in the regime is not without its benefits. Still, she has to endure her neighbors inquisitive looks and the silent questions of her own children.
Kettly Marss Savage Seasons describes a pivotal and painful period in Haitian history by weaving together two stories: the personal story of Nirvah and her family and the universal story of Duvaliers dictatorial regime and its abuses.
About the Author
Évelyne Trouillot was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where she lives and works as a university professor. She is the author of four novels, four collections of short stories, two volumes of stories for children, two books of poems, and an award-winning play. The original French edition of Rosalie l’infâme received the Prix Soroptimist de la romancière francophone, honoring a novel written by a woman from a French-speaking country which showcases the cultural and literary diversity of the French-speaking world. M. A. Salvodon, an associate professor of French at Suffolk University, translated, with Jehanne-Marie Gavarini, Nina Bouraoui’s Tomboy (Nebraska, 2007). Edwidge Danticat is a Haitian-born writer and the author of The Farming of Bones, winner of the American Book Award.