Moonbath

Winner of the Prix Femina, 2014 Winner of a French Voices Award, 2015 “[Lahens] describes her country with a forceful beauty — the destruction that befell it, political opportunism, families torn apart, and the spellbinding words of Haitian farmers who solely rely on subterranean powers.” — Donyapress “In the Haitian tradition of the rural novel […] Yanick Lahens’ Moonbath establishes itself by its grand and lucid beauty.” — Le Point “Lahens’s ambitious fresco of twentieth-century Haiti through the eyes of peasants depicts the first generation with Romain-like incision.” — Robert H. McCormick Jr, World Literature Today "Lahens is the most important living female Haitian author in French." — Christiane Makward “A novel of violent beauty.” — Le Monde "One of the finest voices of Haitian contemporary literature." — L’Ob’s "Everything is there, the content, powerful, and the style, poetic." — Les Echos “A remarkable accomplishment.” —Asymptote “Yanick Lahens adeptly dipped her pen nib in tears to write Moonbath. She brandished her writing instrument with dexterity, creating Cétoute as a metaphor symbolizing both the pain and the promise of Haiti.” —Lanie Tankard, The Woven Tale Press “The novel’s mythic atmosphere is enhanced by Lahens’ meditations on personified nature, and Emily Gogolak’s translation preserves a bare and moving voice throughout.” —The Arkansas International “Power and corruption are ever present, and their pressures—be they sexual or economic or both—are often impossible to reckon with or escape. Though what’s most surprising is the sense that one has waded fully into the world these characters inhabit, a world so alive that I sometimes forgot I was reading a book at all. I’m reminded of first reading Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, a book that similarly transported me clean out of my self and into some other world beyond.” —Christian Kiefer, The Paris Review “An invigorating and necessary investigation of tradition, politics, loss, and history.” —Zeena Yasmine Fuleihan, Ploughshares “On every reread of this multigenerational Haitian novel I find more complexity and beauty in its pages.” —Cecilia Weddell, Associate Editor of Harvard Review Online
Winner of the Prix Femina, 2014 Winner of a French Voices Award, 2015 “A remarkable accomplishment.” — Asymptote “Yanick Lahens adeptly dipped her pen nib in tears to write Moonbath. She brandished her writing instrument with dexterity, creating Cétoute as a metaphor symbolizing both the pain and the promise of Haiti.” — Lanie Tankard, The Woven Tale Press “In the Haitian tradition of the rural novel […] Yanick Lahens’ Moonbath establishes itself by its grand and lucid beauty.” — Le Point “Lahens’s ambitious fresco of twentieth-century Haiti through the eyes of peasants depicts the first generation with Romain-like incision.” — Robert H. McCormick Jr, World Literature Today "Lahens is the most important living female Haitian author in French." — Christiane Makward “A novel of violent beauty.” — Le Monde “[Lahens] describes her country with a forceful beauty — the destruction that befell it, political opportunism, families torn apart, and the spellbinding words of Haitian farmers who solely rely on subterranean powers.” — Donyapress "One of the finest voices of Haitian contemporary literature." — L’Ob’s "Everything is there, the content, powerful, and the style, poetic." — Les Echos "The novel’s mythic atmosphere is enhanced by Lahens’ meditations on personified nature, and Emily Gogolak’s translation preserves a bare and moving voice throughout.” — The Arkansas International “Power and corruption are ever present, and their pressures—be they sexual or economic or both—are often impossible to reckon with or escape. Though what’s most surprising is the sense that one has waded fully into the world these characters inhabit, a world so alive that I sometimes forgot I was reading a book at all. I’m reminded of first reading Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, a book that similarly transported me clean out of my self and into some other world beyond.” - Christian Kiefer, The Paris Review “An invigorating and necessary investigation of tradition, politics, loss, and history.” - Zeena Yasmine Fuleihan, Ploughshares "on every reread of this multigenerational Haitian novel I find more complexity and beauty in its pages.”— Cecilia Weddell, Associate Editor of Harvard Review Online