May is Haitian Heritage Month in the U.S.—a time to celebrate the culture and history of Haiti. To honor the country's rich literary tradition, we've compiled a list of titles by Haitian and Haitian American authors in the Library's collection. Novels for adults and young adults, stories, poetry, and anthologies, these works offer a textured and diverse look at the resiliency and vibrancy of this nation and its people. Many of these stories explore the immigrant experience in America, or a return to the motherland, often with complicated dynamics. We invite you to explore these books (most available as both print and e-books) as well as other works by these authors.

Novels

Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat

At the age of twelve, Sophie Caco is sent from the impoverished village of Croix-des-Rosets to New York to be reunited with her mother, where she gains a legacy of shame that can only be healed when she returns to Haiti, to the woman who first reared her.

Mouths Don't Speak by Katia D. Ulysse 

No one was prepared for the massive earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010, taking over a quarter-million lives, and leaving millions of others homeless. Three thousand miles away, Jacqueline Florestant mourns the presumed death of her parents, while her husband, a former US Marine and combat veteran, cares for their three-year-old daughter as he fights his own battles with acute PTSD. Horrified and guilt-ridden, Jacqueline returns to Haiti in search of the proverbial "closure." Unfortunately, the Haiti she left as a child twenty-five years earlier has disappeared. Her quest turns into a tornado of deception, desperation, and more death. So Jacqueline holds tightly to her daughter—the only one who must not die.

God Loves Haiti by Dimitry Elias Léger

Haiti's first lady Natasha Robert, living in Port-au-Prince, adjusts to life after the earthquake of 2010 hits the city, and wonders if she will ever again see her true love, Alain Destinâe, who was injured during the disaster.

My Mother's House by Francesca Momplaisir

Moving his family to an immigrant enclave in New York in the hopes of starting over, an emotionally damaged Haitian man succumbs to dark impulses that have dangerous ripple effects for the others living in his home. A literary thriller about the complex underbelly of the immigrant American dream—the triumphs and failure, mundane and aberrant—all told by an unexpected narrator: a house that has held unspeakable horrors.

Hadriana In All My Dreams by René Depestre

Hadriana in All My Dreams takes place primarily during Carnival in 1938 in the Haitian village of Jacmel. A beautiful young French woman, Hadriana, is about to marry a Haitian boy from a prominent family. But on the morning of the wedding, Hadriana drinks a mysterious potion and collapses at the altar. Transformed into a zombie, her wedding becomes her funeral. She is buried by the town, revived by an evil sorcerer, and then disappears into popular legend. Set against a backdrop of magic and eroticism, and recounted with delirious humor, the novel raises universal questions about race and sexuality. The reader comes away enchanted by the marvelous reality of Haiti's Vodou culture and convinced of Depestre's lusty claim that all beings—even the undead ones—have a right to happiness and true love.

Dancing in the Baron's Shadow by Fabienne Josaphat

Haiti, 1965. Francois Duvalier, known as Papa Doc, is the impoverished island nation's brutal dictator. Relentless curfews, and Papa Doc's terrifying Tonton Macoutes militia, have made life in Port-au-Prince increasingly difficult for struggling taxi driver Raymond L'Eveill. But it is Raymond's brother, Nicolas, a wealthy professor at the local university, who is stirring up trouble. A secret manifesto penned by Nicolas is rallying opposition to Papa Doc. After a tip-off from a disgruntled student, Nicolas' home is raided and the manifesto discovered, landing him in Fort Dimanche, a notorious, disease-ridden prison many enter but few ever leave. Meanwhile, Raymond's wife leaves him, taking their children and escaping the island. With his family gone, Raymond gets himself arrested as part of a death-defying plan to break his brother out of jail.

Love, Anger, Madness: A Haitian Triptych by Marie Vieux-Chauvet; a new translation by Rose-Myriam Réjouis and Val Vinokur

Love, Anger, Madness is a scathing response to the struggles of race, class, and sex that have ruled Haiti. Suppressed upon its initial publication in 1968, this major work became an underground classic and was finally released in an authorized edition in France in 2005. Here, Marie Vieux-Chauvet offers three slices of life under an oppressive regime. Gradually building in emotional intensity, the novellas paint a shocking portrait of families and artists struggling to survive under Haiti's terrifying government restrictions that have turned its society upside down, transforming neighbors into victims, spies, and enemies.

Heading South by Dany Laferrière; translated by Wayne Grady

On the sun-drenched island of Haiti in the 1970s, under the shadow of "Baby Doc” Duvalier’s notorious regime, locals eke out an existence as servants, bartenders and panderers to the white elite. Fanfan, Charlie, and Legba, aware of the draw of their adolescent, black bodies, seduce rich, middle-aged white tourists looking for respite from their colourless jobs and marriages. These "relationships” mirror the power struggle inherent in all transactions in Port-au-Prince’s seedy back streets. Heading South takes us into the world of artists, rappers, Voodoo priests, hotel owners, uptight Parisian journalists and partner-swapping Haitian lovers, all desperately trying to balance happiness with survival. It explores the lines between sexual liberation and exploitation, artistic freedom and appropriation, independence and colonialism.

The Roving Tree by Elsie Augustave

Set between the two worlds of contemporary suburban America and Haiti under Papa Doc's rule, Iris Odys, adopted by a white American couple at age five, struggles as an adult to recapture her Haitian heritage and personal history.

Young Adult Novels

American Street by Ibi Zoboi

Separated from her detained mother after moving from Haiti to America, Fabiola struggles to navigate the home of her loud cousins and a new school on Detroit's gritty west side, where a surprising romance and a dangerous proposition challenge her ideas about freedom.

Dear Haiti, Love Elaine by Maika and Maritza Moulite

Alaine Beauparlant has heard about Haiti all her life…But the stories were always passed down from her dad—and her mom, when she wasn’t too busy with her high-profile newscaster gig. But when Alaine’s life goes a bit sideways, it’s time to finally visit Haiti herself. What she learns about Haiti’s proud history as the world’s first black republic (with its even prouder people) is one thing, but what she learns about her own family is another. Suddenly, the secrets Alaine’s mom has been keeping, including a family curse that has spanned generations, can no longer be avoided.

Stories

Ayiti by Roxane Gay

Clever and haunting by turns, Ayiti explores the Haitian diaspora experience. A married couple seeking boat passage to America prepares to leave their homeland. A mother takes a foreign soldier into her home as a boarder, and into her bed. And a woman conceives a daughter on the bank of a river while fleeing a horrific massacre, a daughter who later moves to America for a new life but is perpetually haunted by the mysterious scent of blood. Wise, fanciful, and daring, Ayiti is the book that put Roxane Gay on the map and now, with two previously uncollected stories, confirms her singular vision.

Poetry

Haiti Glass by Lenelle Moise

In her debut collection of verse and prose, Moise moves deftly between memories of growing up as a Haitian immigrant in the suburbs of Boston, to bearing witness to brutality and catastrophe, to intellectual, playful explorations of pop culture enigmas like Michael Jackson and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Be it the presence of a skinhead on the subway, a newspaper account of unthinkable atrocity, or the 'noose loosened to necklace' of desire, the cut of Haiti Glass lays bare a world of resistance and survival, mourning and lust, need and process, triumph and prayer.

When the Pipirite Sings: Selected Poems by Jean Métellus translated from the French by Haun Saussy

When the Pipirite Sings expresses an acute historical consciousness and engages recurrent Haitian themes—the wrenching impact of colonialism and underdevelopment, the purposes of education, and the merging of spiritual and temporal power. And, as always with Métellus's poetry, the range of voices and points of view evokes other genres, including fiction and cinema. 

Anthologies

Haiti Noir  edited by Edwidge Danticat

The island nation of Haiti has a very tragic history and continues to be one of the most destitute places on the planet. Here, however, Edwidge Danticat reveals that even while the subject matter remains dark, the caliber of writing coming out of Haiti is of the highest order. This volume includes new stories by: Edwidge Danticat, Gary Victor, Madison Smartt Bell, M.J. Fievre, Evelyne Trouillot, Marilene Phipps, Marie Ketsia Theodore-Pharel, Katia Ulysse, Yanick Lahens, Kettly Mars, Marvin Victor, and others.

Haiti Noir 2: The Classics edited by edited by Edwidge Danticat

The original bestselling Haiti Noir comprised all-new stories by today's best Haitian authors. This new volume collects the true classics of Haitian literature—both short stories and excerpts from longer works—and will be an integral piece of understanding how Haitian culture has evolved over the past fifty years. 

Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.