Edwidge Danticat Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Picture Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Art of...Books

Publication Order of The Royal Diaries Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Edwidge Danticat was born January 19, 1969 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. At the age of two, her dad, Andre, immigrated to New York from Haiti and her mom, Rose, followed two years later. Her and Eliab, her younger brother, were then raised by her uncle and aunt. Her formal education in Haiti was in French, while at home, she spoke Haitian Creole. When she was only twelve years old, she moved to the United States.

Danticat began writing when she was only nine years old, and turned to writing to deal with the disorientation to her new surroundings. She wrote about the immigration experience in a piece called “A New World Full of Strangers”. When she was done, she still felt like her story was not finished, and it compelled her to pen a short story that would become her first novel, called “Breath, Eyes, Memory”.

She got her degree in French Literature from Barnard College, where she was awarded the 1995 Woman of Achievement Award. She later got an MFA from Brown University.

“The Farming of Bones” won an American Book Award. Oprah Book Club selected “Breath, Eyes, Memory”. “Krik? Krak!” was a finalist for a National Book Award.

Her debut novel, called “Breath, Eyes, Memory” was released in the year 1994. Danticat also edited The Beacon Best of 2000 and The Butterfly’s Way.

“Breath, Eyes, Memory” is the first stand alone novel, which was released in the year 1994. Sophie Caco, who is twelve, gets sent from her impoverished village in Crois-des-Rosets off to New York, so that she can be reunited with a mom she hardly remembers. Here, she finds some secrets that no kid should know, as well as a legacy of shame that could only be healed once she goes back to Haiti, to the first woman that reared her.

What follows is a passionate journey right through a landscape, scarred by political violence and charged with the supernatural. All in a novel that bears witness to all the wisdom, traditions, and suffering of an entire people.

With this novel, Edwidge penned a moving and gorgeous tale, and some readers felt struck by how New York City is described by somebody who had never seen it before. Despite some of the violent history of Haiti that is in the book, there is a lot of hope to be found, too, infused with Haitian mentality and thought.

“The Farming of Bones” is the second stand alone novel, which was released in the year 1998. The year is 1937 and Amabelle Desir is a young Haitian woman that works as a maid for a wealthy family right across the border from her homeland in the Dominican Republic. She is engaged to an itinerant sugarcane cutter named Sebastian, and they plan to marry and go back to Haiti after this cane season. Under the Generalissimo’s iron rule, The Republic treats the Haitians like they are second-class citizens.

Amabelle feels a strong sense of loyalty to these employers, especially after her own parents drowned as they were crossing a river from Haiti. Even still, racial tensions become heightened when Amabelle’s boss accidentally kills a Haitian in his car.

This accident is a catalyst for a systematic round-up of Haitians, which seems to be, at first, to be for repatriation. Instead it is a prelude to slaughter. Amabelle, who is caught up in all the confusion and the chaos, goes back to Haiti after a lot of hardship to make a new life for herself to build a new life. She is uncertain for years about the fate of Sebastian, her lover, and becomes haunted by the nagging sense of guilt she feels about it.

The last few chapters bring things together quite nicely and all of the conflicts of each of the characters bring things to some kind of resolution. While the ending truly felt like the end of the story, you still wanted Danticat to tell you more about these people.

“The Dew Breaker” is the third stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2004. They met the guy late in his life: a good dad, a quiet man, and good husband. He was a landlord and barber, a fixture in his Brooklyn neighborhood. The guy had a horrifying scar across his face.

The book moves from Haiti during the sixties and New York City in modern day. The book enters the lives of the people around him, and find out that he has kept a dangerous and vital secret.

Danticat delivers a fantastic book filled with nine shorts that has events and characters getting entwined. The characters are realistic, the plot is engaging, and the way everything comes together is a bit stunning. After finishing the novel, readers have become fast fans of Endwidge Danticat’s work and will be looking into other books of hers.

“Claire of the Sea Light” is the fourth stand alone novel, which was released in the year 2013. Claire Limye Lanme, Claire of the Sea Light, is a child born into tragedy and love in Ville Rose, Haiti. Her mom died while giving birth to her, and every time she has a birthday, Nozias, her dad, takes her to visit her mom’s grave. Nozias wonders if he, in order for her to have a better life, should give her to one of the local shopkeepers.

During the night of her seventh birthday, when he finally makes the awful choice to do just that, she goes missing. While he and other people search for her, some haunting memories, painful secrets, and stunning truths are revealed among the community of women and men. All of their stories connect right to Claire, her parents, and the town itself.

Danticat tells this story with some piercing lyricism as well as the economy of a fable; it is a breathtaking tapestry and tightly woven tale. It explores what it means to be a neighbor, parent, child, friend, and lover, while at the same time it reveals the bonds everyone shares with each other as well as the natural world.