Brother, I'm Dying - Hardcover

Danticat, Edwidge

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1400041155 ISBN 13: 9781400041152

Publisher: Knopf, 2007

Synopsis

From the best-selling author of The Dew Breaker, a major work of nonfiction: a powerfully moving family story that centers around the men closest to her heart—her father, Mira, and his older brother, Joseph.

From the age of four, Edwidge Danticat came to think of her uncle Joseph, a charismatic pastor, as her “second father,” when she was placed in his care after her parents left Haiti for a better life in America. Listening to his sermons, sharing coconut-flavored ices on their walks through town, roaming through the house that held together many members of a colorful extended family, Edwidge grew profoundly attached to Joseph. He was the man who “knew all the verses for love.”

And so she experiences a jumble of emotions when, at twelve, she joins her parents in New York City. She is at last reunited with her two youngest brothers, and with her mother and father, whom she has struggled to remember. But she must also leave behind Joseph and the only home she’s ever known.

Edwidge tells of making a new life in a new country while fearing for the safety of those still in Haiti as the political situation deteriorates. But Brother I’m Dying soon becomes a terrifying tale of good people caught up in events beyond their control. Late in 2004, his life threatened by an angry mob, forced to flee his church, the frail, eighty-one-year-old Joseph makes his way to Miami, where he thinks he will be safe. Instead, he is detained by U.S. Customs, held by the Department of Homeland Security, brutally imprisoned, and dead within days. It was a story that made headlines around the world. His brother, Mira, will soon join him in death, but not before he holds hope in his arms: Edwidge’s firstborn, who will bear his name—and the family’s stories, both joyous and tragic—into the next generation.

Told with tremendous feeling, this is a true-life epic on an intimate scale: a deeply affecting story of home and family—of two men’s lives and deaths, and of a daughter’s great love for them both.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

From the age of four, Edwidge Danticat came to think of her uncle Joseph, a charismatic pastor, as her "second father," when she was placed in his care after her parents left Haiti for America. When she is finally able to join her parents at age twelve, she experiences a jumble of emotions. Reunited with her parents and brothers, she leaves behind Joseph, and the only home she's ever known.

Edwidge makes a new life in America while fearing for those still in Haiti, as the political situation deteriorates, and good people are caught up in terrifying events. In 2004, his life threatened by an angry mob, the frail, 81-year-old Joseph makes his way to Miami, where he thinks he will be safe. Instead, he's detained, and dead within days.

About the Author

Edwidge Danticat is the author of numerous books, including Breath, Eyes, Memory; Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist; The Farming of Bones, an American Book Award winner; and The Dew Breaker, a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist and winner of the first Story Prize. She lives in Miami with her husband and daughter.

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1400041155
• ISBN 13: 9781400041152
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288