God Loves Haiti - by Dimitry Elias Léger (Paperback)

About the Book

A native of Haiti, Dimitry Elias Leger 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 Destine, and live happily ever after? Warm and constantly surprising, told in the incandescent style of Jose Saramago and Roberto Bolano, and reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez 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."

Book Synopsis

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.

From the Back Cover

"Léger deftly sketches his country's postcolonial struggles as well as its faith, resilience, and promise."--The New York Times Book Review

In thirty-five seconds, more than 200,000 people on the island of Haiti are killed and 1.3 million are left homeless. An earthquake has struck, ravaging a land that is plagued by poverty and poor infrastructure. Yet the amazing characters in God Loves Haiti are never simply victims.

At the heart of the novel are the connected but divergent fates of its President, his wife, and her lover. The world has fallen down around them, laying bare remorse, pain, isolation, and unalloyed grief now devastatingly realized, and irrevocably altering all their lives.

Anchoring this poignant and constantly surprising story is an affectionate portrait of Haiti, in all its complexity--its proud past as the first nation established by a successful slave revolt, its entangled politics with France and the United States, and its efforts to rise from the ruins to build anew.

"A luminous debut. . . . Léger writes beautifully and with an immense humanity. A standout novel."--Junot Díaz

Review Quotes

"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

[God Loves Haiti] shows undeniable strength and a powerful message about creating something new out of such devastation. -- Publishers Weekly

"[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