The Enigma of the Return

(Paperback)

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"An affecting meditation on loss and exile" ANGEL GURRIA-QUINTANA, Financial Times

Windsor Laferriere left Haiti in fear of his life. He has lived in Montreal for thirty-three years, and when his father dies in New York, himself an exile for half a century, Windsor travels there to attend the funeral, and then back to Haiti to inform his mother of the death.

In Haiti, Windsor is faced with the grim truth of life in his homeland - the endemic poverty, the thwarted ambitions and broken dreams. But only here can he become a writer again . . .

The Enigma of the Return lives where fiction, poetry and autobiography meet. These creative tensions sustain a narrative of astonishing beauty, clarity and insight.

"Looks set to become one of the great poetic statements of homesickness and return . . . It should be read by all exiles everywhere" Ian Thomson, Independent

"A poetic, melancholic tour de force . . . a compelling, intense, stark and poignant exploration of living life as an outsider . . . The great Haitian novel" Jo Lateu, New Internationalist

Reviews

This magnificent meditation on loss and political exile looks set to become one of the great poetic statements of homesickness and return . . . I have not read such an affecting or humane book in years; it should be read by all exiles everywhere. - Independent

This affecting novel investigates a man's relationship with the island he fled in his youth - Haiti - and the land in which he made a name for himself - Quebec. A meditation on loss and exile. - Financial Times

'Moves fluidly between free verse and prose' Guardian. - Guardian

A poetic, melancholic tour de force ... a compelling, intense, stark and poignant exploration of living life as an outsider ... The great Haitian novel. - Jo Lateu

A tour de force of partial autobiography - GQ magazine

In an age of great post-colonial migrations, this is a magnificent book - Nouvel Observateur

Author Bio

Dany Laferriere is a francophone Haitian and Canadian novelist and journalist. Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and raised in Petit Goave, Laferriere worked as a journalist in Haiti before moving to Canada in 1976.