God Loves Haiti: A Novel

by Dimitry Elias Leger

Overview

A native of Haiti, Dimitry Elias Léger makes his remarkable debut with this story of romance, politics, and religion that traces the fates of three lovers in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and the challenges they face readjusting to life after an earthquake devastates their city.

Reflecting the chaos of disaster and its aftermath, God Loves Haiti switches between time periods and locations, yet always moves closer to solving the driving mystery at its center: Will the artist Natasha Robert reunite with her one true love, the injured Alain Destiné, and live happily ever after? Warm and constantly surprising, told in the incandescent style of José Saramago and Roberto Bolaño, and reminiscent of Gabriel García Márquez’s hauntingly beautiful Love in The Time of Cholera, God Loves Haiti is an homage to a lost time and city, and the people who embody it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062348159
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	02/02/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Dimitry Elias Léger was born in Haiti and educated at St. John’s University and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. A former staff writer at Fortune magazine and the Miami Herald, he has been an adviser to the United Nations’ missions in Haiti and Geneva, and is a former global leadership fellow at the World Economic Forum.

Editorial Reviews

So powerful as to be mesmerizing. I don’t think I’ve seen the Haitian earthquake of 2010 represented with such compassion and insight. One of those books that leave you wishing the author could produce a tome every month.

Gary Shteyngart

A fully mature novel in scope and perspective, as rich in ideas as in humanity. Funny, street-smart, and keenly observed, God Loves Haiti establishes Léger as one of contemporary fiction’s most distinctive and irresistible new voices.

Edwidge Danticat

The Port-au-Prince earthquake of 2010 may seem like an odd setting for a romantic comedy, but then Haiti really is an amazing place! Dimitry Elias Léger has brought it off, with a smile, a tear, and a peppery dash of satire as a lagniappe.

Madison Smartt Bell

A luminous debut . . . Léger writes beautifully and with an immense humanity. . . . He renders [Haiti] in all of its stupendous beautiful tortured complexity. A stand-out novel.

Junot Diaz

A work of fiction that combines breathless narrative movement with memorable writing and unabashed Big Ideas. [An] impressive debut novel.

Andrea Lee

The heat, the horror, the taste of ashes: Reading this vivid debut novel about the Port-au-Prince earthquake of 2010-and the risky love triangle that survives it-is jolting and exhilarating.

More magazine

With empathy and wit, Léger captures the intricacies of a country that is at once beautiful and tortured….There is no doubt that God Loves Haiti will leave readers wanting more from this talented author.

M&V Magazine

[Léger ]deftly sketches his country’s postcolonial struggles as well as its faith, resilience and promise….his Haiti-in-crisis, richly seen and unforgettable, is all too real.

New York Times Book Review

Léger’s use of imagery when describing the aftermath of the earthquake is remarkable and unparalleled; it offers a refreshing perspective. God Loves Haiti is a detailed and gripping account of the tragic events that occurred, infused with a story of romance, courage and change.

AfroPunk

11/17/2014
In the moments just before the biblically awful Haitian earthquake of 2010 hits Port-au-Prince, the beautiful Natasha Robert is walking across the tarmac, pulled by her new husband, who happens to also be the Haitian president , toward a waiting plane. Though she has been anticipating escape her whole life and is indeed about to be ferried off to a luxurious life in Italy, Natasha is suddenly hesitant, apprehensive about leaving behind her true love, Alain, whom she’s left locked in her closet at the National Palace. For all the destruction the imminent earthquake will cause, it will also save Natasha, though in unexpected and mysterious ways. This debut novel explores how Natasha comes to grips with what has unfolded both in her country and in her heart. While the setup is promising and the context rich for emotional mining, the novel often feels slow and even repetitive, not for the mourning and reflection such horror would seem to force, but for the cyclical tendencies of the narrative. Although Alain, the president , and Natasha wander in the aftermath of the quake, their separate emotions seem restated rather than deepened, but the book still shows undeniable strength and a powerful message about creating something new out of such devastation. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

11/01/2014
This debut novel (think Love in the Time of Cholera) follows three loves across Port-au-Prince.

Library Journal