Breath, Eyes, Memory

Edwidge Danticat's groundbreaking debut, with new introduction from Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo.

At the age of twelve, Sophie Caco is sent from her impoverished Haitian village 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 her stunning literary debut, Danticat evokes the wonder, terror, and heartache of her native Haiti — and the enduring strength of Haiti's women — with vibrant imagery and narrative grace that bear witness to her people's suffering and courage.

'A vision of female solidarity which transcends place and time' — Sunday Times

'A novel that rewards the reader again and again with small but exquisite and unforgettable epiphanies' — Washington Post

ISBN: 9780349145259 | Published: 11 April 2023 (first published 1994) | Paperback | 256 pages