Welcome to Litsy!

In this thoughtful memoir, the author recounts her childhood as the daughter of Baptist missionaries in Haiti. Her hot-tempered father, an agronomist, applied all his missionary zeal to reforestation efforts with little regard for the effects on his family. The author uses her parents' letters, church documentation and interviews to offer a clear-eyed look at the complicated legacy and shortcomings of missionary aid, however well-intentioned.

Loved this like I love all of Isabel Allende

February 2025 Book #5

This is a collection of short stories, powerful ones in terms of topics. First book I read by this author and looking forward to read more books by her. However, my experience with short story collections is that I like some more that the others and this is not an exception. Also, some stories I saw them more narrative, informative than a short story per se. It was the same experience I had with In A Dream Hoyse ⬇️

Very good! Bought this on a trip to Crystal Bridges.

Edwidge Danticat‘s writing is clear and succinct. She is a master of the essay form. This book covers a wide range of topics, both personal and global. One of the later essays in the book is about Haiti and its political climate and it sounded eerily familiar. Definitely a book to add to your library. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Reading this book about the same time i read Gay‘s Hunger, it is obvious it is partly autobiographical. Gay and the protagonist suffered much the same trauma and the recovery was/is a journey of a lifetime. They have similar internal dialogue, the disturbed response to people trying to help them, the revulsion of being touched. Gay‘s family was from Haiti, so there‘s that connection, too. There‘s the inability to forgive and the desire to know ⬇️

Next up, a poetry collection by a Canadian author of Haitian descent, using zombie folklore as a metaphor for slavery, being Black in a White-dominated world, immigration narratives, generational trauma, and healing, the book's title being the traditional remedy for zombiïsm.
🇭🇹 #Haiti 🇨🇦 #Canada

I‘m starting this book today, my second book for #authorabook this month. @Soubhiville

These short stories about women in Haiti or its diaspora are painful and poignant, sometimes hopeful and sometimes despairingly sad. Some feel so real I thought they were autobiographical. They are not but I felt I learned so much about the author from reading them. This is the first I‘ve read by Gay and it was so good. I look forward to reading another one by her. Having just finished a book of short stories about Nepal, with what I felt were ⬇️

“She has been dying for nearly twenty years…” 🤣

#authoramonth @Soubhiville