A Liturgy for the Anonymous - by Lyonel Trouillot (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A breathtaking portrait of modern Haiti told through the voices of the downtrodden and overlooked--from one of the country's preeminent writers.

A minister's nephew is dispatched to a coastal village to conduct an inventory of a library bequeathed to the state by a singular individual. It is a vast legacy consisting exclusively of the works of ''great men'' who have left their mark on history.

When he writes to his uncle to keep him abreast of his progress and latest discoveries, however, he experiences a multitude of voices forcing their way into his head and insinuating their way into his account. Disrupting the prevailing calm and order, they demand their due and assert their own entitlement to posterity. Do not all lives--whether humble or heroic--deserve to have their story told?

Review Quotes

Praise for Simple Stories

"Trouillot conjures a vibrant community...In sparsely simple, never simplistic stories, Trouillot intriguingly, poignantly centers 'the wounded and the outcast, who have a right to revenge and sometimes take it, if only in words.'" --Booklist (starred review)

About the Author

Lyonel Trouillot is a Haitian novelist, poet, journalist, and teacher of French and Creole literature. For his novel La Belle Amour humaine, he was awarded the Grand Prix du Roman Métis, the Geneva Book Fair Literary Prize, and the Gitanjali Literary Prize. Trouillot was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2010. Having lived in exile in Miami for several years, he has now returned to Haiti and lives in Port-au-Prince.

Willard Wood grew up in France and has translated more than thirty works of fiction and nonfiction from the French. He has won the Lewis Galantière Award for Literary Translation and received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Translation. He lives in Norfolk, Connecticut.