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A Port-à-l'Ecu, village perdu des Caraïbes, un groupe d'Haïtiens, guidé par le songe d'Amédée Hosange, embarque sur un frêle trois-mâts dans l'espoir d'échapper à une vie misérable, Hanté par le souvenir de son île, Normand Malavy. Haïtien exilé au Québec, part en quête de ses racines et se rend à Miami. Etablissant de subtils <> entre les temps et les lieux. Emile Ollivier narre dans ce roman les destins croisés de personnages unis par le drame de l'exil.
254 pages, Pocket Book
First published February 14, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 22, 2025
"[O]nly the simple-minded believe they come from some particular location. You can also come from places that you have merely passed through along the way."
This novel is a definitive embodiment of exile literature—it performs exile structurally, narrated through a chain of nested testimonies that articulates the discontinuities and indirect transmissions characterizing diasporic memory. It conveys as well the disparate experiences of exile based on class, following both a poor community that flees Haiti by boat and a literary ex-patriot living and writing in Montreal. Brigette, who narrates the boat journey, leaves Haiti due to economic devastation, where Normand, the exiled intellectual, is fleeing the Duvalier dictatorship. The stories are always relayed and mediated through other tellers—portraying memory as collective, contingent, and migratory. It's masterfully done. The character of Normand is built through the stories and memories of his partner and a lover, while Brigette holds the memories of her community. By weaving Brigette's community narrative with Normand's intellectual exile, the novel offers a portrayal of displacement that is both a personal, and a shared, continually re-narrated experience.
The writing is poetic and soulful, and I must commend the translator of the English language edition, Leonard Sugden, whose adept handling of the novel resulted in a very smooth reading experience with none of the stilted, awkward phrasings that can result from an overly literal rendering.
This novel is a definitive embodiment of exile literature—it performs exile structurally, narrated through a chain of nested testimonies that articulates the discontinuities and indirect transmissions characterizing diasporic memory. It conveys as well the disparate experiences of exile based on class, following both a poor community that flees Haiti by boat and a literary ex-patriot living and writing in Montreal. Brigette, who narrates the boat journey, leaves Haiti due to economic devastation, where Normand, the exiled intellectual, is fleeing the Duvalier dictatorship. The stories are always relayed and mediated through other tellers—portraying memory as collective, contingent, and migratory. It's masterfully done. The character of Normand is built through the stories and memories of his partner and a lover, while Brigette holds the memories of her community. By weaving Brigette's community narrative with Normand's intellectual exile, the novel offers a portrayal of displacement that is both a personal, and a shared, continually re-narrated experience.
The writing is poetic and soulful, and I must commend the translator of the English language edition, Leonard Sugden, whose adept handling of the novel resulted in a very smooth reading experience with none of the stilted, awkward phrasings that can result from an overly literal rendering.
April 12, 2008
The history of Haiti is the background of this novel which links two storylines about refugees fleeing from Papa and Bébé Doc's dictatorship.
While the book may be interesting within the context of authobiographical writing of Ollivier and also in a larger context of immigrant writing in Canada, it still seemed somewhat distanced, a sort of literary piece of driftwood.
While the book may be interesting within the context of authobiographical writing of Ollivier and also in a larger context of immigrant writing in Canada, it still seemed somewhat distanced, a sort of literary piece of driftwood.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews