On the second page of Myriam J. A. Chancy’s new novel “Village Weavers,” there’s a scene set in 1940s Haiti that will resonate with every one of us who has wondered where our family came from, how we fit in the world, who we became because elders left home, made choices and sacrificed.
In describing a lush, interior, magical world, a grandmother is immersing her granddaughter in an identity that’s deeply rooted in the island from which they come, that they are “of the land.”
Chancey has ancestral roots in Haiti and the novel unfurls in a time when the island was free of French rule, the middle class was rising and there was great promise for the island’s future.
When I interviewed her for an upcoming Big Books and Bold Ideas episode, she said she was watching the political and economic chaos in Haiti with great dismay and feared that the international community would give up.
The story also explores the character of a friendship that blooms between two girls and then fractures over class and colorism as they grow into young women.
Join Kerri Miller at a special on-the-road edition of Talking Volumes. She’ll be at the Sheldon Theatre in Red Wing on June 4 to talk with Minnesotan Leif Enger about his new book, “I Cheerfully Refuse.” Tickets are limited. Learn more at mprevents.org.
Don Winslow draws his Danny Ryan trilogy — and his writing career — to a close with his new novel, “City in Ruins.” He joins host Kerri Miller one more time on Big Books and Bold Ideas to discuss the end of his series.
According to PEN America, 4,349 books were banned from schools between July and December 2023, more than the entire previous school year. More than 3,000 of those bans were in Florida.
In her new novel, Leigh Bardugo drags readers into a world of servitude, magic, power struggles and intrigue — one where there isn’t a single character that doesn’t have a secret agenda.
Ursula Villarreal-Moura’s debut novel movingly portrays its protagonist coming to terms with an imbalanced, difficult and sometimes harmful friendship that was also a key part of her life for years.
Myah Ariel’s debut is like a fizzy, angsty mashup of Bolu Babalola and Kennedy Ryan as the challenges of doing meaningful work in Hollywood threaten two young lovers’ romantic reunion.
