Edwidge Danticat will be reading from Brother I'm Dying at Books and Books, Coral Gables, on Friday, October 12, 2007 at 8:00 pm. This powerful memoir describes Danticat's family life and the tragedy surrounding the father, Mira, and his older brother, Joseph.From the age of four, Edwidge Danticat came to think of her uncle Joseph, a charismatic pastor, as her “second father,” when she was placed in his care after her parents left Haiti for a better life in America. Listening to his sermons, sharing coconut-flavored ices on their walks through town, roaming through the house that held together many members of a colorful extended family, Edwidge grew profoundly attached to Joseph. He was the man who “knew all the verses for love.”
And so she experiences a jumble of emotions when, at twelve, she joins her parents in New York City. She is at last reunited with her two youngest brothers, and with her mother and father, whom she has struggled to remember. But she must also leave behind Joseph and the only home she’s ever known.
Edwidge tells of making a new life in a new country while fearing for the safety of those still in Haiti as the political situation deteriorates. But Brother I’m Dying soon becomes a terrifying tale of good people caught up in events beyond their control. Told with tremendous feeling, this is a true-life epic on an intimate scale: a deeply affecting story of home and family—of two men’s lives and deaths, and of a daughter’s great love for them both.
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A review of Edwidge Danticat's reading at Books & Books
Margaria Fitchner: Edwidge Danticat
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Edwidge Danticat
Miami
Caribbean authors
Haiti
Haitian authors
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