The Haitian earthquake of 2010 makes an unusual setting for a romantic comedy, but this novel manages to beautifully balance the devastating impact of the unexpected seismic event alongside celebrating bonds of affection and the resilience of the human spirit. A love triangle between twenty-year-old artist Natasha Robert; her new husband, the president, forty years her senior; and Alain, the lover she has abandoned in the hope of escaping the confines of her native country. The novel opens with a bang in the rubble of the airport, with the reader sharing Natasha’s initial disorientation; only moments before, she was climbing the steps to the plane that was to take her and her husband to a better life in Italy.
The novel circles in time as we plunge deeper into the story, exploring the realities of Haitian life both before and after the earthquake, as well as the hopes and dreams of the three protagonists. The descendants of men and women trafficked from Guinea and Benin, Haitians were subjected to centuries of slavery until the rebellion led by Toussaint Louverture defeated Napoleon to make Haiti the first Black republic. There followed decades of instability, American occupation, dictatorship and anarchy. In a dream sequence in the novel, the president watches as his predecessors line up to be judged by St Peter, none of them worthy of a place in heaven. He oversees a country in deep debt, overrun by NGOs, where he must bow down to a clandestine community of United Nations peacekeepers. He perceives himself, and is likewise perceived by his wife, as weak and vulnerable yet, confronting the crisis, he rediscovers his dormant leadership skills. While, prior to the earthquake (goudou-goudou), the president was easily persuaded by Natasha to swap his responsibilities for an easier life in Europe, Alain, with his New York MBA is committed to working to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of his country’s infrastructure. Natasha, meanwhile, is committed to nothing but her art, inspired by her Catholicism which she revisits when she takes refuge in the cathedral following the earthquake.
Dimitry Elias Léger was born in Haiti and educated mostly in the United States. He returned as an adviser to the United Nations disaster recovery operations and his prose sings with fine detail of life and death amongst the wreckage. The air is thick with cement dust; the survivors’ cries of agony mingle with the chimes of mobile phones; and the UN needs only twenty-four hours to rig up air conditioning in a tent on what used to be the airport runway when, in the presidential palace, it had been defective for years. This is bittersweet story of international and interpersonal relations; of sin and redemption; ambition and loyalty; and, like The Narrow Road to the Deep North, survival in extremis. (My own 99-word homage to the novel can be found on this post on disorientation which, although I was too disorientated at the time to notice, was my 200th post.)
Dimitry Elias Léger was born in Haiti and educated mostly in the United States. He returned as an adviser to the United Nations disaster recovery operations and his prose sings with fine detail of life and death amongst the wreckage. The air is thick with cement dust; the survivors’ cries of agony mingle with the chimes of mobile phones; and the UN needs only twenty-four hours to rig up air conditioning in a tent on what used to be the airport runway when, in the presidential palace, it had been defective for years. This is bittersweet story of international and interpersonal relations; of sin and redemption; ambition and loyalty; and, like The Narrow Road to the Deep North, survival in extremis. (My own 99-word homage to the novel can be found on this post on disorientation which, although I was too disorientated at the time to notice, was my 200th post.)
| I got quite excited on discovering that Natasha was an artist, reminding me of a fascinating exhibition Haitian art I saw last year. I couldn’t begin to describe it, so here’s the curator to introduce it. | |
HarperCollins360 aims to bring books of international renown to the UK and I’m grateful to them for my proof copy. They also have one print copy of the novel to give away to one of my blog readers anywhere in the world. The winner will be selected by the random number generator that is Mr Annecdotist from among my blog commenters: to be eligible for the draw, you need to leave a comment on this post AND on any other post from this year. (If you’ve already commented, you’re not required to do so again.) The winner will be announced here around midday on UK publication date 12 February – you’ll need to check back if you want to claim your prize (but that's no great hardship if you tick the box to be notified of comments by email). Good luck!
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