Drifting (Paperback)

"An arresting account of the contemporary Haitian-American experience."
--"Publishers Weekly"
"Ulysse displaces and redeems her characters with formidable skill, while her precise cuts through all preconceptions . . . . Intense and necessary."
--"Booklist"
""Drifting" is a remarkable debut by a phenomenal writer. Much like Sandra Cisneros's "The House on Mango Street," this sublime and powerful book allows us to experience the joys and tragedies of ordinary and extraordinary lives, in small neighborhoods and big cities, in the present and the past. Katia D. Ulysse's talent soars higher and higher to expand both our hearts and our universe."
--Edwidge Danticat, author of "Claire of the Sea Light"
"We already know that the Haitian-American community can produce some of our very finest fiction writers. With "Drifting," Katia D. Ulysse proves that point once again, evoking the immigrant experience with delicacy, gravity, and pathos. Refreshing and arresting on the first read, this book will be remembered for a long time to come."
--Madison Smartt Bell, author of "The Color of Night"
"In "Drifting," Katia Ulysse delves into the complex lives of girls and young women. With boldness and clarity she shows us what she finds: the fears, cruelties, and humiliations of their childhood; disturbing feelings of longing, jealousy, and grief; an intense struggle to make sense of the unfathomable world of adults; and above all a determination to survive. In clear prose, Katia Ulysse tells the tangled truth of life and brings a sensitive eye to bear on complicated, flawed characters in circumstances at once everyday and extraordinary. These stories of displacement, struggle, renewal, and redemption are tough, piercing, and true, and they bear the mark of a gifted writer."
--Michele Voltaire Marcelin
Katia D. Ulysse's debut provides the rare opportunity to peer into the private lives of four secretive Haitian families. The interwoven narrative spans four decades--from 1970 through 2010--and drifts among various provinces in Haiti, the United States, churches, vodun temples, schools, strip clubs, and the grave. Ulysse introduces us to a childless Haitian American couple risking it all for a baby to call their own; a Florida-based predatory schoolteacher threatening students with deportation if they expose him; and the unforgettable Monsieur Boursicault, whose chain of funeral parlors makes him the wealthiest man in Haiti. This daring work of fiction is a departure from the standard narrative of political unrest on the island. Ulysse's characters are everyday people whose hopes for distant success are constantly challenged--but never totally swayed--by the hard realities accompanying the immigrant's journey.