{ "item_title" : "Dèy", "item_author" : [" Edwidge Danticat "], "item_description" : "FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD - From the bestselling author of Everything Inside comes a vivid, timely story, moving from Haiti to Brooklyn to Miami, of a woman whose sense of self and family are called into question when she gets caught in a random act of violence one sunny Florida day. Is home the place where we are born? Or is it the place where we die? These questions haunt Magnolia, a successful Haitian American real estate agent in Miami. When she hears gunfire while at a shopping mall, she takes shelter in a nearby restaurant, cowering with fellow shoppers and diners. Once she's safely home, Magnolia keeps this traumatic event from everyone. But given her life back, she begins to see everything clearly: her extraordinary bond with her daughter, Zo ; her nearly broken relationship with Zo 's father; the challenges of her mentally troubled mother, whose unraveling patterns Magnolia worries she's spiraling toward herself; and her father's affair with a woman who has borne him a child. While struggling through the labyrinth of her past, Magnolia must also come to terms with the losses sustained that life-altering day, and nearly every day by her parents and sibling in Haiti. Can love or family protect us from harm? Does optimism or fear win out in one's heart? Which side will prevail for Magnolia? Pulled between these questions, each of which involves a high-stakes choice--Miami or Haiti, single or married, mortal or ghost, before or after--Magnolia is a narrator who is yon pati koukouy, part firefly flitting and shimmering between different worlds. Taking as its title a Haitian Krey l word for mourning, D y is a profoundly warm and moving novel about the importance not only of sharing grief but also of inseverable family ties. Brave and striking, D y is one of Danticat's most powerful and deeply affecting works yet, told with her signature unfaltering voice and evocative beauty (The Boston Globe).", "item_img_path" : "https://covers4.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/0/59/380/352/0593803523_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "30.00", "online_price" : "26.40", "our_price" : "26.40", "club_price" : "26.40", "savings_pct" : "12", "savings_amt" : "3.60", "club_savings_pct" : "12", "club_savings_amt" : "3.60", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "30.00" } }

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Edwidge Danticat is an international treasure, and her sixth novel, Dèy, proves it. Its title means “mourning” in Haitian Kreyòl. Yes, there’s a lot of mourning in this book, but it’s intertwined with joy and hope. The story’s opening is sensational. It’s winter 2018 in Florida—the time and place are important —and Magnolia is a successful Haitian American real estate agent. One day she drops by the local mall to buy her nearly 10-year-old daughter Zoe a cell phone. While she’s there, a shooter opens fire. People are killed. Magnolia, who hides beneath a table in a restaurant, is physically unharmed, so she decides to tell no one what she’s been through. This is a mistake. It turns out there are a lot of people for Magnolia not to tell. Friends and family include Zoe; Zoe’s father, Harrison; Magnolia’s half-brother, Victor; her parents; Harrison’s formidable mother and cousin; and an exuberant bunch of kinnery. This is how Danticat weaves joy and pain into an amazing, vibrant tapestry. The people around Magnolia love her, and she loves them. Danticat isn’t the showiest writer, and that’s part of her brilliance. She eschews jaw-breaker words for les mots justes to express the complicated joys of human connection. At the same time, Danticat’s words can convey the clammy dread that’s part of the fallout from the shooting Magnolia survived. The lovely, innocent Zoe and her classmates have been practicing active shooter drills. The sun endlessly shines on both Florida and Haiti, and it reminds the reader that some of the worst scenes in horror movies happen in broad daylight. When the Parkland shooting happens at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day, it’s almost an anticlimax. Bringing that real-world senseless violence into Dèy is an acknowledgment of how Magnolia’s pain may feel for readers. Danticat warns not to do like Magnolia and keep that pain hidden from your loved ones. In dark times, love and community are everything.