The Dewbreaker by Edwidge Danticat

The Dewbreaker Translated from English by Jacques Chabert “They would come before dawn, when the dew is settling on the leaves, and they would take you away.”

In Haiti, the "dew breakers" are the tontons macoutes, torturers in the pay of the Duvaliers. On the scarred face of a quiet man, the past resurfaces: a hairdresser in New York, he seems to have erased all trace of his former profession.

No one even knows where this disturbing scar comes from. But for his rebellious and curious daughter, for his mystical wife, for the witnesses, the families of the victims, the truth must come out! Can we convert bitterness into forgiveness, draw a cross on the past and continue to live?

The chapters of this novel gradually come together to reveal the traumas of a country under dictatorship and the horror of living with an unpunished criminal. Edwidge Danticat gives this lucid story a moving breath. Edwidge Danticat makes us aware of the beauty and terror that characterize daily life in Haiti.

The Dew Breaker is a brilliant book, the best yet from a writer of immense talent.MERI NANA-AMA DANQUAH - THE WASHINGTON POST'S BOOK WORLDAnticat's art is elliptical and virulent. His words are sharp and indelible.MICHIKO KAKUTANI - THE NEW YORK TIMESDanticat's prose is riveting. It echoes a sincere sorrow for Haiti's suffering, capturing the intensity of these violent times.JEANNETTE J. LEE - ASSOCIATED PRESS