We're Alone: a Roxane Gay Book Club Pick, 2024 - Hardcover

Danticat, Edwidge

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1529439213 ISBN 13: 9781529439212

Publisher: riverrun, 2024

Synopsis

'Danticat offers an invaluable primer to the Haitian American experience in all its inherited trauma. Arguably she does for the Haitian diaspora what Junot Díaz has done for Dominican Americans' TLS

Shortlisted for the 2025 OCM Bocas Prize for Nonfiction

'Danticat's observations feel more like a guide to living - a testament to what writers can offer in difficult times' Tinbete Ermyas, NPR Best Books of 2024

Tracing a loose arc from Edwidge Danticat's childhood to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent events in Haiti, the essays gathered in We're Alone include personal narrative, reportage, and tributes to mentors and heroes such as Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, Gabriel García Márquez, and James Baldwin that explore several abiding themes: environmental catastrophe, the traumas of colonialism, motherhood, and the complexities of resilience.

From hurricanes to political violence, from her days as a new student at a Brooklyn elementary school knowing little English to her account of a shooting hoax at a Miami mall, Danticat has an extraordinary ability to move from the personal to the global and back again. Throughout, literature and art prove to be her reliable companions and guides in both tragedies and triumphs.

Danticat is an irresistible presence on the page: full of heart, outrage, humor, clear thinking, and moral questioning, while reminding us of the possibilities of community. And so "we're alone" is both a fearsome admission and an intimate invitation-we're alone now, we can talk. We're Alone is a book that asks us to think through some of the world's intractable problems while deepening our understanding of one of the most significant novelists at work today.

PRAISE FOR EDWIDGE DANTICAT

'In Danticat's hands, with great tenderness, these hidden lives are moved away from the margins' TLS
'Stunning ruminations on the Haitian diaspora identity, as well as the layered complexities of seeking hope after tragedy . . . Read it, you will not be disappointed' Bad Form

About this title

About the Author

Edwidge Danticat is the author of numerous books, including The Art of Death, a National Book Critics Circle finalist; Claire of the Sea Light, a New York Times Notable Book; Brother, I'm Dying, a National Book Critics Circle Award winner and National Book Award finalist; The Dew Breaker, a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist and winner of the inaugural Story Prize; The Farming of Bones, an American Book Award winner; Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah's Book Club selection; and Krik? Krak! also a National Book Award finalist. A 2018 Neustadt International Prize for Literature winner and the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship.

Edition details

• Publisher: riverrun
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1529439213
• ISBN 13: 9781529439212
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160