"Haiti has long been the most interesting country in the Americas. When we make a new version of this list in five years, we imagine it will include several of her works." - Flavorwire
That's why it's shocking that-although this will change in 2014, when she has two books slated for publication-this incredible little collection is her only proper book to date.
"There is a chance that Roxane Gay has published something great every day for the last few years. This debut amply contains the righteous energy that drives all her work." - Kirkus Reviews That gives her briefest stories a punch even when they come in at two pages or fewer, sketching out the challenges of assimilation in terms of accents, meals, or 'What You Need to Know About a Haitian Woman.'. This book set the tone that still characterizes much of Gay's writing: clean, unaffected, allowing the (often furious) emotions to rise naturally out of calm, declarative sentences. "A set of brief, tart stories mostly set amid the Haitian-American community and circling around themes of violation, abuse, and heartbreak. Readers will find her powerful first book difficult to put down." - Booklist Dismantling the glib misconceptions of her complex ancestral home, Gay cuts and thrills. "Highly dimensioned characters and unforgettable moments. It's Gay's unflinching directness-the sense that her characters are in the room with you, telling it like it is-that makes her irresistible." - Vogue Even her more lyrical mode is filtered through a keen sense of the lost promise of one country and the blinkered privilege of the other. "The themes explored in Gay's nonfiction, such as the transactional nature of violence and the ways in which stereotypes of poverty add another layer of dehumanization, are just as potent here. Wise, fanciful, and daring, Ayiti is the book that put Roxane Gay on the map and now, with two previously uncollected stories, confirms her singular vision. And a woman conceives a daughter on the bank of a river while fleeing a horrific massacre, a daughter who later moves to America for a new life but is perpetually haunted by the mysterious scent of blood. A mother takes a foreign soldier into her home as a boarder, and into her bed. A married couple seeking boat passage to America prepares to leave their homeland. The powerful debut collection exploring the Haitian diaspora experience from New York Times -bestselling powerhouse Roxane Gay, now widely available for the first time in Grove Press paperback.Ĭlever and haunting by turns, Ayiti explores the Haitian diaspora experience. Roxane Gay is an award-winning literary voice praised for her fearless and vivid prose, and her debut collection Ayiti exemplifies the raw talent that made her "one of the voices of our age" ( National Post, Canada).