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Brother, I'm Dying
Edwidge Danticat
#UB8532
Hardcover, 272 pages; 2007
$19.16
What I learned from my father and uncle, I learned out of sequence and in fragments. This is an attempt at cohesiveness, and at re-creating a few wondrous and terrible months when their lives and mine intersected in startling ways, forcing me to look forward and back at the same time. I am writing this only because they can't.
When she was only four years old, Edwidge Danticat's parents left her behind in Haiti, in the care of her uncle Joseph, a pastor and community leader, as they emigrated to America in search of a better life. Though Danticat joined her parents eight years later, she remained close with her relatives in Haiti. When her uncle was forced to seek refuge in the States—after his life was threatened by a violent gang in Haiti—the eighty-one-year-old was detained by U.S. Customs, imprisoned, and brutally mistreated. Within days of his arrival, he died in custody. At about the same time, Danticat's father was diagnosed with a fatal illness. Danticat's chronicle of her efforts to rescue her uncle while tending to her dying father—all the while preparing for the arrival of her first child—is surprisingly hopeful. Her description of the complex relationship between her father and his brother reflects the courage and strength of her close-knit family. Brother, I'm Dying reminds us all of the hope that new life can offer in even the most desperate circumstances.
(AG)
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