Simple Stories - by Lyonel Trouillot (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This vibrant collection of 22 stories offers a kaleidoscopic view of Haiti and a wonderful encapsulation of the acclaimed author's work.

In a country plagued by dictatorship and insurrection, poverty and corruption, where police officers and gang members become hard to distinguish, art provides a sense of meaning and respite.

As people from all walks of life protest their tyrannical leader, a painter tries to reconcile the brutal violence he sees with the beauty of his lover.

A wealthy industrialist's kidnapping ties back to his past with a humble laundress from the seaside.

A lovesick servant girl turns to magic to win her master's heart.

Having escaped the shantytowns he grew up in, a wannabe James Bond feels their pull again when he gets involved with an alluring young woman--and her pimp.

Written with the masterful language of a poet, and filled with characters at once lifelike and mythical, Lyonel Trouillot's story collection creates a multifaceted portrait of modern Haiti.

Review Quotes

"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)

Praise for Antoine of Gommiers

"With Antoine of Gommiers, Trouillot proposes a dialectic that explains the crisis not only in Haiti but also in the modern world...and asks us to learn to merge our dreams in order to live harmoniously." --Los Angeles Review of Books

"A book about the quest for the Haitian identity, both a magic tale and a painful everyday life account, between prosaicness and lyricism." --France Culture

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.