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The Farming of Bones

By Edwidge Danticat

(6)

| Paperback | 9780140280494

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Book Description

From the bestselling author of Breath, Eyes, Memory, a passionate and profound novel of two lovers struggling against political violence

The Farming of Bones begins in 1937 in a village on the Dominican side of the river that separates the country from Haiti. Amabelle Desir, Haitian-born and a faithful maidservant to the Dominican family that took her in when she was orphaned, and her lover Sebastien, an itinerant sugarcane cutter, decide they will marry and return to Haiti at the end of the cane season. However, hostilities toward Haitian laborers find a vitriolic spokesman in the ultra-nationalist Generalissimo Trujillo who calls for an ethnic cleansing of his Spanish-speaking country. As rumors of Haitian persecution become fact, as anxiety turns to terror, Amabelle and Sebastien's dreams are leveled to the most basic human desire: to endure. Based on a little-known historical event, this extraordinarily moving novel memorializes the forgotten victims of nationalist madness and the deeply felt passion and grief of its survivors.

* New York Times Notable Book
* Named one of the Best Books of the Year by People, Entertainment Weekly, Chicago Tribune, Time Out New York, Publishers Weekly, and the American Library Association
* The author was nominated for a National Book Award and named one of the "20 Best Young Novelists" by Granta

"A remarkable new novel . . . Danticat writes in wonderful, evocative prose, and she is especially adept at treading the path between oppression and grace. At times, it's a particularly painful path, but, always, a compelling one." --The Boston Sunday Globe

"[With] hallucinatory vigor and a sense of mission . . . Danticat capably evokes the shock with which a small personal world is disrupted by military mayhem . . . The Farming of Bones offers ample confirmation of Edwidge Danticat's considerable talents." --The New York Times Book Review

"It's a testament to her talent that the novel, while almost unbearably sad, is still a joy to read." --Newsweek

Penguin Readers Guide Available

Critics

The Farming of Bones By Edwidge Danticat

In a talk Edwidge Danticat gave in January, she commented, It's often thought that poor people have no interior lives, and later, I always tell people to fill in the silence that bothers them. Thus, it's fitting that Danticat's newest novel, The Farm ... (read full critics)

bookpage published on Wed, 15 Sep 2010

1 Review

Amabelle is a young Haitian woman who has lost both of her parent to drowning, adopted by Dominican family where she lives as maid with the family that took her in. As the story progresses she falls in love with Sebastian, a sugar worker commonly called “braceros”, who was also orphaned by ill fated ... (continue)

Amabelle is a young Haitian woman who has lost both of her parent to drowning, adopted by Dominican family where she lives as maid with the family that took her in. As the story progresses she falls in love with Sebastian, a sugar worker commonly called “braceros”, who was also orphaned by ill fated circumstances. In love, together they devise to return to their native soil Haiti, where they would start a new life together, away from servitude.. Alas, when their lives and desires become enmeshed with Haitian Dominican political friction only time will attest if and how they make it back to their precious Alma mater. The farming of bones is compelling story of love, dignity and triumph over one's circumstances.
Amabelle as the leading character is loving and moving. Her joys and angst are what keep the reader turning page after page. She is brave and unwavering in her aspiration to become wife to her sugar cane itinerant beau Sebastien and the mother of his children. Her daily struggles and the prejudice she endures because her nationality makes her very identifiable to readers across the board. The death of her parents has left her prone to insomniac nights and she can only find solace in the arms of the man she loves. Her heart's desire and that of her lover is to make a new life: “We had made a pact to change our unhappy tales into happy ones...”
Ms. Danticat skillfully recounts true hidden story which occurred in October 1937, when then President and Dictator, Trujillo ordered the massacre of Haitian living in the Dominican Republic in retaliation for the discovery and execution by the Haitian government of his most valued cover agents. The Dominican army slaughtered as many as 20,000 largely unarmed men, women and children, mostly in the border areas, but also in western Cibao. The author, an excellent storyteller weaves with great dexterity fact and fiction, keeping the reader riveted to every word she lines on the page.
Edwidge Danticat is also the author of : Kril Krak (1996);Breath,Eyes and Memory(1998) , The Dew Breaker (2004), Brother, I'm dying (2007). She is the editor of The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States and The Beacon Best of 2000: Great Writing by Women and Men of All Colors and Cultures. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and is an American Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award winner, as well as the winner of the first Story Prize. She lives in Miami with her husband and daughter.

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Book Details

Rating:
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English Books
Paperback 320 Pages
ISBN-10: 0140280499
ISBN-13: 9780140280494
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Pub date: Sep 01, 1999
Dimensions: 1290 mm x 839 mm x 65 mm Just how big is that?
Also available as: Hardcover, Audio Cassette, School & Library Binding and Others