Backstitch - by Idrissa Simmonds-Nastili (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From a powerful new voice in fiction comes a stunning multigenerational epic, spanning from 1920s Haiti to 1990s New York, centered on the disappearance of a little girl from Brooklyn's J'ouvert celebrations

"With Backstitch, Simmonds-Nastili has placed herself solidly on the map as one of the great Haitian-American novelists of our time." --Chinelo Okparanta, award-winning author of Under the Udala Trees

Brooklyn, 1996. Serenity Marcelin and her six-year-old daughter, Jouvay, have spent the summer reeling from an unexpected, devastating loss. Just when the two of them are beginning to find solace within their new family dynamic, Jouvay disappears into a crowd over Labor Day weekend and Serenity's entire world changes in an instant.

In order to understand the events leading to Jouvay's sudden disappearance, Serenity must unearth the long-buried secrets--and ghosts--of her family's shocking past.

Told through the eyes of the unforgettable Marcelin women and the people closest to them, Idrissa Simmonds-Nastili's Backstitch embroiders a profound tale of hope and resistance, transporting readers to the city of Jérémie during the years of the US occupation of Haiti and to the vibrant streets of New York. A sweeping story of motherhood, sisterhood, resistance, generational trauma, and liberation, this novel charts the lives of the ghosts, secrets, and languages we can't escape from--even when we try to bury them.

Review Quotes

Praise for Backstitch

"Reading Backstitch is like holding your breath and chipping through a sea of sound while wearing your finest garments to the fête. These pages reveal an intricate telling of mothering, child loss, migration, grief, duppy, water, and memory's unyielding power. Idrissa Simmonds-Nastili joins this generation's frontline of lush-languaged storytellers, and we are better for it."
--Mahogany L. Browne, author of A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe, Longlisted for a National Book Award

"Idrissa Simmonds-Nastili has written an expertly crafted multigenerational epic, a remarkable rendition of Haitian cosmology-- replete with the supreme Bondye; powerful Iwas and water spirits; Ginen, the eternal homeland; vèvès; and more. In this novel, ghosts and spirits travel alongside the living. Here is a fully fleshed-out afterlife--an afterworld that is very much as alive as the world of the living. Simmonds-Nastili also does not shy away from politics--particularly, the tensions and contradictions of fighting for one's country while also fleeing from it. With Backstitch, Simmonds-Nastili has placed herself solidly on the map as one of the great Haitian-American novelists of our time. Prepare yourself for a thrilling physical and metaphysical ride!"
--Chinelo Okparanta, award-winning author of Under the Udala Trees

"In Backstitch, Idrissa Simmonds-Nastili has written a novel of extraordinary tenderness about the ways mothers shape us, the stories families carry, and the histories that ripple through generations...Her novel lingers in the spaces where family stories become history, and where love and loss are carried across generations. Tender, lyrical, and quietly powerful, this debut is a magnificent story, marvelously told. Multilayered and multigenerational, Backstitch balances vast historical scope with the intimacy of a love story. This novel asks us to consider what we carry forward, what we leave behind, and how we stitch ourselves back together."
--Nina McConigley, author of How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder

"A tremendous feat that left me with chills. Backstitch is a powerful and wise novel about the intertwined threads between history and memory, revolution and pride, hauntings and haints. Simmonds-Nastili weaves a complex, thrilling tale about the strength of sisterhood and brilliantly ties it to Haitian spiritual traditions. Read this now."
--Crystal Hana Kim, author of The Stone Home and If You Leave Me

About the Author

Idrissa Simmonds-Nastili is a Haitian-American, Jamaican-Canadian writer, poet, and essayist. She is the recipient of the Crab Creek Review Poetry Prize, a finalist for the Commonwealth Short Story Award and the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in poetry, as well as co-editor of BreakBeat Poets Vol. 2: Black Girl Magic. Her work has most recently appeared in Vogue, LitHub, WIRED Magazine, O: The Oprah Magazine, and more. She has been the recipient of fellowships and residencies from Hedgebrook, Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Poets House, and VONA/Voices, and holds an MFA in fiction from Warren Wilson College. She is the curator of Brunch & Word, a bi-coastal literary salon. Her roots are in Brooklyn, New York and Surrey, British Columbia, and she calls Oakland home.