Brother, I'm Dying (Paperback)

From the age of four, Edwidge Danticat came to think of her uncle Joseph, a charismatic pastor, as her 'second father', when she was placed in his care after her parents left Haiti for a better life in America. Listening to his sermons, sharing coconut-flavored ices on their walks through town, Edwidge grew profoundly attached to Joseph. When, at twelve, she joins her parents in New York City, she is reunited with her brothers, and with her mother and father. But she must also leave behind Joseph and the only home she's ever known. Edwidge tells of making a new life in a new country while fearing for the safety of those still in Haiti as the political situation deteriorates. But Brother, I'm Dying soon becomes a terrifying tale of good people caught up in events beyond their control. Late in 2004, his life threatened by an angry mob, forced to flee his church, the frail, eighty-one-year-old Joseph makes his way to Miami, where he thinks he will be safe. Instead, he is detained by US Customs, held by the Department of Homeland Security, brutally imprisoned, and dead within days. It was a story that made headlines around the world. His brother, Mira, will soon join him in death, but not before he holds hope in his arms: Edwidge's first-born, who will bear his name - and the family's stories, both joyous and tragic - into the next generation. Told with tremendous feeling, this is a true-life epic on an intimate scale.