Words At Large

Edwidge Danticat became a literary sensation virtually overnight, after her debut novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory (Vintage), was chosen for Oprah's Book Club. Published in 1994, when she was just 25, the book went on to sell more than 600,000 copies thanks to Oprah’s nod in 1998. Her latest book, the memoir Brother, I’m Dying (Knopf), is her first foray into non-fiction — and it too is garnering accolades, including the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography.

As America’s first Haitian woman to write in English, Danticat was taken up by the media in a remarkable way. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and is an American Book Award recipient. In addition, Danticat was chosen by Granta as one of the “20 Best Young American Novelists” and by the New York Times Magazine as one of “30 Under 30" people to watch.

In Brother, I’m Dying, Danticat tells a story of family and exile — of adjusting to life in a new country while fearfully continuing to follow developments in her turbulent homeland. In particular, she focuses on her uncle Joseph, who had been like a second father to her when she was left in his care at the age of four, when her parents emigrated to the United States. (She didn’t join them there until she was 12.) Events takes a tragic turn when, in 2004, Joseph is forced to flee Haiti and winds up detained by U.S. Customs and imprisoned by the Department of Homeland Security, despite having a valid visa and passport; he’s dead within days.

Eleanor Wachtel spoke with Edwidge Danticat from the CBC’s New York studio. Listen to their conversation here:

First aired October 21, 2007 on Writers & Company. [runs 51:24]

Through the summer, different episodes of Writers & Company will air on Sundays and Thursdays. On July 17, listen to an interview with eminent classicist, Bernard Knox, about both The Iliad and The Odyssey. Knox fought in the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War and makes compelling connections between modern day war experiences and those of ancient Greece.