The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat

Danticat tells this sorrowful tale in rich, lush prose that veers, often very suddenly, between rigidly controlled understatement and feverish emotionalism. In the meditative last third (almost devoid, unfortunately, of dramatic tension), set a quarter-century later, Amabelle finally makes her peace with her bereavement, and, after an emotional reunion with Senora Valencia, passively accepts the fate she’s been prepared for by her contemporaries and forebears alike. The long middle of the story describes the despised and terrified Haitians’ extended march back to their own country, during which Amabelle and Sebastien are separated. In the lyrically written opening section, Amabelle’s intimate moments with her lover, sugarcane worker Sebastien Onius (the two of them share memories of their deceased parents), are counterpointed against her submissive relationship with Senora Valencia, the wife of a Dominican army officer whose own loss of a child subtly foreshadows the many disasters to come.

Danticat’s subject is the 1937 massacre by Dominican islanders of Haitians living within their borders, at the command of Dominican dictator Trujillo-as experienced, and then remembered many years afterward, by the story’s narrator, Haitian maidservant Amabelle Desir. A strong second novel from the Haitian-born author whose debut, Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994), was recently anointed by Oprah, and whose story collection, Krik ? Krak !, won the National Book Award in 1995.

The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat