New Haitian fiction…

Haiti Noir, edited by Edwidge Danticat
[Softcover], 309 pages. (December 2010)
Publisher: Akashick Books

Fans of Edwidge Danticat, perhaps Haiti’s most well known author today in the U.S., will be interested in this collection of noir/crime genre stories that she had assembled before Haiti’s tragic earthquake early last year.

I admit I’m new to reading Haitian literature.  I recently read most of  Danticat’s The Dew Breaker (also available here in the Library, Call No.: F  Dan), a series of related stories on a Haitian immigrant man’s life in the U.S. with his family, and his dark, murderous past.

I’ve read other authors writing on the experience of immigrant displacement and the conflicts between cultures. However, to date I’ve never read anything quite so dark and anti-heroic, except of course, Dostoevksy, which a Baltimore Sun review likened Danticut’s novel to.  The itching sense of guilt, unease, displacement, made Danticat’s Dew Breaker difficult to read at times.

With Haiti Noir, Danticat introduces readers to a slew of native Haitian diaspora writers and non-Haitian ones.  Readers can also read a review of this collection of stories by Carolyn Kellogg of the LA Times.