The original best-selling 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. Editor Edwidge Danticat, one of the most respected Haitian writers, has a well-deserved sterling reputation, and here she follows on the success of the original first volume.

Contents

Introduction by Edwidge Danticat

PART I: HUNTED/HAUNTED
Praisesong for Port-au-Prince
DANIELLE LEGROSS GEORGES
Port-au-Prince, 1999
Preface to the Life of a Bureaucrat
JACQUES ROUMAIN
Bolosse, 1930
A Strange Story
IDA FAUBERT
Turgeau, 1959
The Enchanted Second Lieutenant
JACQUES-STEPHEN ALEXIS
Bassins-Coquilleaux, 1960
A White House with Pink Curtains in the Downstairs Windows
JAN J. DOMINIQUE
Kenscoff, 1996
Oresca
PAULETTE POUJOL ORIOL
Source Diquini, 2001
Children of Heroes (excerpt)
LYONEL TROUILLOT
Place des Héros, 2002

PART II: SEDUCED
Remember One Day
EMMELIE PROPHÈTE
Boulevard Jean-Jacques Dessalines, 1999
Rêve Haitien
BEN FOUNTAIN
Pacot, 2000
Heading South
DANY LAFERRIÈRE
Kaliko Beach, 2006
Three Letters You Will Never Read
GEORGES ANGLADE
Quina, 2006
The Port-au-Prince Marriage Special
EDWIDGE DANTICAT
Delmas, 2008
True Life
MICHÈLE VOLTAIRE MARCELIN
Rue des Miracles, 2008

PART III: LOSING MY WAY
I Just Lost My Way
ÈZILI DANTÒ
Anba Dlo, Lan Ginen, 1997
The Mission
MARIE-HÉLÈNE LAFOREST
Bonair, 2002
Barbancourt Blues (excerpt)
NICK STONE
Pétionville Square, 2007
Dame Marie
MARILÈNE PHIPPS-KETTLEWELL
Dame Marie, 2007
Surrender (excerpt)
MYRIAM J.A. CHANCY
Port-au-Prince Central Prison, 2010
Things I Know About Fairy Tales
ROXANE GAY
Cité Soleil, 2011
About the Contributors

HAITI HAS A TRAGIC HISTORY and continues to be one of the most destitute places on the planet, especially in the aftermath of the earthquake. Here, however, Danticat reveals that even while the subject matter remains dark, the caliber of Haitian writing is of the highest order.

EDWIDGE DANTICAT was born in Haiti and moved to the United States when she was twelve. She is the author of Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah Book Club selection, Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist, and the novel-in-stories The Dew Breaker. Her memoir, Brother, I'm Dying, was a 2007 finalist for the National Book Award and a 2008 winner of a National Book Critics Circle Award. She is a 2009 recipient of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grant and lives in Miami.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

PART I: WHICH NOIR?
"Odette" PATRICK SYLVAIN (Christ-Roi)
"The Rainbow's End" M.J. FIEVRE (Kenscoff)
"The Finger" GARY VICTOR (Port-au-Prince)
"Paradise Inn" KETTLY MARS (Gokal)
"Which One?" EVELYNE TROUILLOT (Lalue)
"Twenty Dollars" MADISON SMARTT BELL (Morne du Cap)

PART II: NOIR CROSSROADS
"Claire of the Sea Light" EDWIDGE DANTICAT (Ville Rose)
"The Harem" IBI AANU ZOBOI (Delmas)
"Rosanna" JOSAPHAT-ROBERT LARGE (Pacot)
"Maloulou" MARIE LILY CERAT (Martissant)
"Dangerous Crossroads" LOUIS PHILIPPE DALEMBERT (Petionville)
"Blues for Irene" MARVIN VICTOR (Carrefour-Feuilles)

PART III: WHO IS THAT NOIR?
"The Last Department" KATIA D. ULYSSE (Putis Blain)
"Departure Lounge" NADINE PINEDE (Cap Haitien)
"Who Is that Man?" YANICK LAHENS (Saint-Marc)
"Mercy at the Gate" MARIE KETSIA THEODORE-PHAREL (Croix-des-Bouquets)
"The Leopard of Ti Morne" MARK KURLANSKY (Gonaives)
"The Blue Hill" RODNEY SAINT-ELOI (Ozanana)