At the age of twelve, Sophie Caco is sent from her impoverished village of Croix-des-Rosets to New York, to be reunited with a mother she barely remembers. There she discovers secrets that no child should ever know, and a legacy of shame that can be healed only when she returns to Haiti--to the women who first reared her. What ensues is a passionate journey through a landscape charged with the supernatural and scarred by political violence, in a novel that bears witness to the traditions, suffering, and wisdom of an entire people.
"I love you, " the stranger announces. "More than the sky loves its stars." And her mother does, but there are memories from Haiti secreted away that torture both young Sophie and her estranged insomniac mother. This award-winning 24-year-old Haitian American's evocative novel explores the bonds joining four generations of women.
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