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Seven books that put you in Haiti. Six are by writers from Haiti and set there, starting with Masters of the Dew and Krik? Krak!. The other is a wider pick, by someone who knows the place well.
Jacques Roumain's Masters of the Dew, about a drought-stricken peasant village and a feud over water, is one of the best-known novels from Haiti. Roumain wrote in French, and the book reaches English readers in translation. French and Haitian Creole are both official languages of Haiti, and the country's history, from the revolution that brought independence in 1804 to the Duvalier years, runs through its writing. Haitian authors have also written from abroad.
Edwidge Danticat's Krik? Krak! gathers linked stories of Duvalier-era terror and boat departures, and her The Farming of Bones sets the 1937 Parsley Massacre on the Haiti–Dominican Republic border. Alejo Carpentier, a Cuban novelist, wrote The Kingdom of This World, which sees the Haitian Revolution through Ti Noël, from Mackandal's uprising to King Christophe's Citadel.
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A peasant returns to his drought-stricken village and tries to unite feuding families to bring water, capturing rural Haitian life, Vodou-inflected culture and land struggles.
Linked stories spanning Duvalier-era terror, poverty, and boat departures, showing how political violence and storytelling shape Haitian lives at home and abroad.
A girl moves between a Haitian village and New York, revealing rural Haitian womanhood, family traditions and the legacy of the Duvalier years.
Set on the Haiti–Dominican Republic border in 1937, it renders the Parsley Massacre through the life of a Haitian migrant worker.
A memoir of her uncle in Bel Air, Port-au-Prince, and her father, illuminating political unrest and the 2004 crisis.
Linked stories around a former Duvalier-regime torturer and his victims, showing how the Tonton Macoute era still marks Haitian lives.
By long-time residents and outsiders who know the place well, or folk tales, poetry and history with a strong feel for Haiti.
The Haitian Revolution through the eyes of Ti Noël, from Mackandal's uprising to King Christophe's Citadel.
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