"The Other Side of the Sea, " the first novel by this major
Haitian author to be translated into English, is riveted on the
other shore--whether it is the ancestral Africa that still haunts
Haitians, the America to which so many have emigrated, or even that
final shore, the uncertain afterlife awaiting us all. With a
grandmother and her grandson sharing the narration, this rich and
concise tale covers an impressive span of Haitian history and
emotion. Too old to leave her veranda, Noubot reflects on her past,
touching on the 1937 Parsley Massacre, in which thousands of
Haitians died at the hands of Dominican soldiers, and laments the
exodus of so many young people from Haiti, although, ironically,
she dreamed of making the trip herself (her name means New Boat in
Creole). Her story is juxtaposed with that of her grandson, Jonas,
as he suffers the abandonment of friends--including his lover--who
emigrated during the Duvalier dictatorships, even feeling an urge
to join them. Perhaps most striking is the addition of a third
voice--that of an anonymous passenger in steerage recounting a
slave ship's progress to the New World from Africa. This voice from
long ago provides a powerful depiction of the sights, sounds, and
smells of the Middle Passage and a fascinating counterpoint to the
evocations of modern Haiti.
CARAF Books: Caribbean and African Literature Translated from
French
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