The Sun, the Sea, a Touch of the Wind [Signed]

Having found hard-won success, a brash, attractive black artist suffers a nervous breakdown and flees to the Haiti of the 1970s, where she incurs the wrath of the authorities and saves a helpless child. 10,000 first printing. Tour.

Guy lives up to her reputation as a lyrical interpreter of human relationships, both personal and political, in her new novel. Set in Haiti during the Watergate era, this psychologically harrowing and culturally acute tale revolves around Jonnie Dash, an artist in the clutches of a nervous breakdown. A trim African American who looks much younger than her years, Jonnie has come to Haiti to paint in peace, far from the notoriety engendered by her recent triumphs. She has also returned to a man she loved some 30 years ago. But Jonnie finds no comfort in this gorgeous, turbulent land, where the natives treat her just like any other rich American, and white Americans and Brits are offended by her wealth and independence. Overwhelmed by a flood of painful memories from her brutally poor childhood, Jonnie gets caught up in a web of incestuous and abusive relationships that subtly reflect the poisonous legacies of colonialism and the slave trade. As Guy adroitly meshes historical fact with emotional truths, she plumbs the depths of our collective suffering but, ultimately, holds out hope for redemption. Donna Seaman