Overview

Winner of the 2014 Prix Fémina & 2015 French Voices Award After she is found washed up on shore, Cétoute Olmène Thérèse, bloody and bruised, recalls the circumstances that led her there. Her voice weaves hauntingly in and out of the narrative, as her story intertwines with those of three generations of women in her family, beginning with Olmène, her grandmother. Olmène, barely sixteen, catches the eye of the cruel and powerful Tertulien Mésidor, despite the generations-long feud between their families which cast her ancestors into poverty. He promises her shoes, dresses, land, and children who will want for nothing…and five months after moving into her new home, she gives birth to a son. As the family struggles through political and economic turmoil, the narrative shifts between the voices of four women, their lives interwoven with magic and fraught equally with hope and despair, leading to Cétoute's ultimate, tragic fate. Yanick Lahens was born in Port-au-Prince in 1953 and is one of Haiti’s most prominent authors. She published her first novel in 2000, was awarded the prestigious Prix Femina in 2014 for Moonbath, and is the 2016 winner of a French Voices Award.

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9781941920565

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Reviews

Winner of the Prix Femina, 2014 Winner of a French Voices Award, 2016 [Lahens] describes her country with a forceful beauty the destruction that befell it, political opportunism, families torn apart, andthespellbinding words of Haitian farmers who solelyrely on subterranean powers. <b><i>Donyapress</i></b> In the Haitian tradition of the rural novel [] Yanick Lahens <i>Moonbath</i> establishes itself by its grand and lucid beauty. <i><b>Le Point</b></i> Lahens s ambitious fresco of twentieth-century Haiti through the eyes of peasants depicts the first generation with Romain-like incision. <b>Robert H. McCormick Jr, <i>World Literature Today</i></b> Lahens is the most important living female Haitian author in French. <b>Christiane Makward</b> A novel of violent beauty. <i><b>Le Monde</i></b> One of the finest voices of Haitian contemporary literature. <i><b>L Ob s</i></b> Everything is there, the content, powerful, and the style, poetic. <i><b>Les Echos</i></b>

Winner of the Prix Femina, 2014 Winner of a French Voices Award, 2016 [Lahens] describes her country with a forceful beauty -- the destruction that befell it, political opportunism, families torn apart, and the spellbinding words of Haitian farmers who solely rely on subterranean powers. -- <b><i>Donyapress</i></b> In the Haitian tradition of the rural novel [...] Yanick Lahens' <i>Moonbath</i> establishes itself by its grand and lucid beauty. -- <i><b>Le Point</b></i> Lahens's ambitious fresco of twentieth-century Haiti through the eyes of peasants depicts the first generation with Romain-like incision. -- <b>Robert H. McCormick Jr, <i>World Literature Today</i></b> Lahens is the most important living female Haitian author in French. -- <b>Christiane Makward</b> A novel of violent beauty. -- <i><b>Le Monde</i></b> One of the finest voices of Haitian contemporary literature. -- <i><b>L'Ob's</i></b> Everything is there, the content, powerful, and the style, poetic. -- <i><b>Les Echos</i></b>

Winner of the Prix Femina, 2014Winner of a French Voices Award, 2016 [Lahens] describes her country with a forceful beauty  the destruction that befell it, political opportunism, families torn apart, and the spellbinding words of Haitian farmers who solely rely on subterranean powers.  Donyapress In the Haitian tradition of the rural novel [ ] Yanick Lahens' Moonbath establishes itself by its grand and lucid beauty.  Le Point Lahens's ambitious fresco of twentieth-century Haiti through the eyes of peasants depicts the first generation with Romain-like incision.  Robert H. McCormick Jr, World Literature Today Lahens is the most important living female Haitian author in French.  Christiane Makward A novel of violent beauty.  Le Monde One of the finest voices of Haitian contemporary literature.  L'Ob's Everything is there, the content, powerful, and the style, poetic.  Les Echos Winner of the Prix Femina, 2014Winner of a French Voices Award, 2016 [Lahens] describes her country with a forceful beauty - the destruction that befell it, political opportunism, families torn apart, and the spellbinding words of Haitian farmers who solely rely on subterranean powers. - Donyapress In the Haitian tradition of the rural novel [...] Yanick Lahens' Moonbath establishes itself by its grand and lucid beauty. - Le Point Lahens's ambitious fresco of twentieth-century Haiti through the eyes of peasants depicts the first generation with Romain-like incision. - Robert H. McCormick Jr, World Literature Today Lahens is the most important living female Haitian author in French. - Christiane Makward A novel of violent beauty. - Le Monde One of the finest voices of Haitian contemporary literature. - L'Ob's Everything is there, the content, powerful, and the style, poetic. - Les Echos

Author Information

Yanick Lahens was born in Port-au-Prince in 1953. After attending school and university in France, she returned to Haiti., where she taught literature at the university in Port-au-Prince and worked for the Ministry of Culture. Her first novel was published in 2000, and she won the prestigious Prix Femina for Moonbath in 2014. Emily Gogolak is a journalist focusing on migration, gender, and the US-Mexico border. A former editorial staffer at The New Yorker and a James Reston Reporting Fellow at the New York Times, she now lives in Texas. A graduate of Brown University in Comparative Literature, she is also a literary translator. Her translation of Moonbath won a 2015 French Voices Award.

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