I was introduced to this extraordinary writer’s work while studying post-colonial literature at university and I was drawn to her portrayals of Haiti and it’s women, the injustices and trauma they have suffered as well as the dislocated feeling for those in the Haitian diaspora. Everything Inside is a series of stories that cover some of these same themes and they are, as always, powerful and incredibly moving. There were those hard-hitting themes of trauma and suffering for characters who have gone through terrible events like kidnapping or surviving the major earthquake of 2010. Where natural disaster happens poverty, disease and displacement follow close behind along with the constant political turmoil and corruption, For those who are displaced their trauma is added to by the way they are treated in their chosen location, the inability to fit in and a constant yearning for home only partly assuaged by the food or music of Haiti.
What Danticat does incredibly well is educate the reader that not all we hear about Haiti is true and that it has often been let down, not just by it’s own leaders but by other countries who pledge and talk the talk, but never follow through on their promises. All of this runs alongside our protagonist's lives as they also negotiate everyday life events like divorce, family discord, broken hearts and illness. Danticat has always understood inter generational trauma and explored ways her characters can try and draw a line or break the cycle, I have struggled in the past with short story collections because I’ve felt thrown into the action too fast, can’t get to know my narrator or find the story ending having only touched the surface of a subject. I didn’t feel like that here. These stories didn’t feel slight or insubstantial. Danticat really engaged me and ensured I connected with each character. Only the final story was from a mail perspective and while interesting, I didn’t feel his story fit perfectly with the rest. This is a deeply felt and emotionally literate collection, that brings the realities of Haiti to life and celebrates some extraordinary women.

Love a good set of short stories. Absolutely brilliant new to me author. Am immediately buying EVERYTHING they’ve written. Strong 5/5.

I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Quercus Books, and the author Edwidge Danticat.
This was an easy and involving read, covering eight different Haitian stories and characters, most of whom are displaced, many based in Miami.
There was a sense of powerlessness and weariness in each story, as the narrators grapple with both personal and global tragedies. Some stories were more poignant and emotive than others, but each was involving in their own right. 3.5 stars rounded up.

This is an interesting collection of short stories, largely set in Miami’s Haitian communities, or on Haiti itself. Evidently, the writer’s focus here is the transition between one’s mother land and the country they have moved to, often in desperate circumstances.

Here, Danticat explores political and social issues, as well as the more everyday and familiar. A woman’s former husband manipulates her into giving him money to save his lover who’s been kidnapped — allegedly; a grandmother with dementia threatens to unravel her daughter’s life; a construction worker, who survived a treacherous sea crossing from Haiti to the US, suffers a horrific accident.

All of the stories here are believable - they are commentaries on our lives today, particularly pertinent if one has immigrated and knows what displacement is.

Little Haiti in Miami, Florida
Having left Haiti when she was twelve years to live in America, it’s not surprising that her stories involve a cast of characters with connections to her home country and a neighbourhood in Miami Dade County, Florida referred to as ‘Little Haiti’ after a Haitian pro-democracy activist wrote to a Miami newspaper referring to his new home as “Little Port-au-Prince” which was shortened and known thereafter as ‘Little Haiti’.

Many Haitians fled their country in the sixties and seventies, to escape the brutal dictatorship of François “Papa Doc” Duvalier.

The short stories in this collection concern those who left, those who stayed, those who visited one place or another for a short time, those who belong, those who are trying to find their place, those who have found success by honest means and those who resorted to taking advantage of the vulnerable.

The Immigrant Dilemma, Stay or Return?

When the dictatorship in Haiti ended, so did a lot of marriages. This tension and divide is also explored within the stories.

"There was a hard line between those who wanted to stay in America and others who wanted to go back and rebuild the country."

Exploring the connections that bind people together and the events that force them apart, they could be tales of any number of immigrant individuals or families. The clash of cultures shifts and evolves as immigrants find themselves seen as the other, if they stay too long and get too used to life elsewhere.

Character Driven Narratives

There are eight contemplative, character driven stories that are slightly melancholic, that all represent some change in the status quo, but that each provide the prospect of hope.

This is the third book I’ve read by Edwidge Danticat and I enjoy the way she fuses the characters of her origin country with present day life in America and the intersection of the two.

It maps the slow beginnings of a divide between the generations, grandparents who have never met their grandchildren, business people trying to entice successful Haitians back to their motherland and the increasing disconnect between the two, as their worlds grow further apart. And the vulnerability of women who put their trust in another.

The stories were published over a twelve year period, so pick up on historical events that create turning points in her stories, the earthquake of 2010, the actions of foreign aid workers, and the elevated perception of North America.

Her debut novel Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994) a story of four generations of women was excellent, as was the gripping memoir Brother, I’m Dying (2007) which focuses on the relationship between her father and her Uncle Joseph.

This collection of short stories all tied together by each character’s Haitian roots, were absolutely incredible. Every character brings with them a new world, a new memory of their home country. Focusing on love, loss, deception, illness, and death, these stories also contain messages of hope within them. Each story moved me, the characters seemed so real, their stories personal and filled with emotion. I was completely immersed into their worlds.

Some scenes were quite confronting, but all incredibly real. It is so hard to pick a favourite of the stories, as they were all complex and beautifully written. The imagery conjured brought their stories to life so vividly. Their memories and feelings toward Haiti differed for each character, the way some yearned for their home country yet others fled and didn’t want to return. I loved reading about their lives in America, and how it differed from their life back in Haiti. I really thought that the inclusion of some events that occurred in Haiti, such as the earthquake and the murder of the Haitian Prime Minister were such an important addition to the stories.

As much as I loved each story, there were some that definitely stood out. Horrific details and confronting imagery were present in some of the stories, such as “Hot Air Balloons” where we were shown what it was like working in the Rape Recovery clinic. Some of the details revealed here are absolutely devastating. The final story “Without Inspection” is another containing some incredibly moving imagery, and was the perfect end to this book. The graphic details of his death as well as the details of life as an immigrant leaving Haiti on a boat, will stay with me forever.

I loved this story collection, as they are so diverse in their perspectives and experiences. We learn what Haiti means to the characters, and how the notion of identity is so important to us all as humans. I look forward to reading more of this authors work. Thank you so much for allowing me to read this book!

Incredibly crafted short stories set in Haiti or Miami exploring lives of people from or with connections to Haiti. These stories are sometimes bleak but reflect the pressures of poverty and the desperation that will bring out in people and the fall out of that. All the stories are wonderfully human, people doing the best they can but also unafraid of their flaws even when or maybe because they search for love in the riskiest way, in order to feel, to escape. Recommended if you'd like to understand more about this island its culture and it's people wherever they may live.

With thanks to the publisher and Net galley for an ARC in exchange for a review.

Thank you to @riverrun @quercusbooks the author and @netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.
This is a short story collection and sometimes short story collections can be a bit hit or a miss. But I've definitely embraced them more this year. And I have to say, this is one of the best short story collections I've read. I loved every single story. This is a wonderful and beautiful collection. There are 8 short stories, with all but the last one, told from a female perspective. And all the stories centre around people from Haiti who have moved to America. Every story moved me. They deal with family ties, belonging, death, guilt and strong female friendship. I would love to read more from this talented author.
Special mentions should be given to my absolute favourites - The Gift, a mistress meeting her lover 7 months after the Haiti earthquake. Sunrise, Sunset - a mother and daughter dealing with Alzheimer's and Without Inspection - an illegal immigrants story

Thank you NetGalley and Quercus Book for this copy!

This wonderful collection of short stories is heartbreaking, but terribly beautiful! Danticat presents us with an array of characters that open up to us a world in crisis, upsetting but deeply moving. Danticat's writing is so delightful that it amplifies that feeling, leaving you broken by the end of each story.

Thanks to NetGalley for this book. Everything inside is a collection of short stories by Edwidge Danticat. This book is raw, brilliant and heart wrenching. The emotionally weighing quotient of this boook weighs in your heart, it’s an immersive experience of a book. You have it all, from sadness, to tears, to love to life, to faith and even to hope. Read this book. Definitely recommend it.

🌿BOOK REVIEW🌿

Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat

🌼🌼🌼🌼/5

“Sometimes you take detours to get where you need to go”

“There are loves that outlive lovers”

Everything Inside consists of 8 extremely emotional and absorbing stories including a sparking romance between two old friends, the ending of a marriage, a young woman following her dream, two lovers reuniting, a baby’s christening and a man falling to his death.

Each story is centred around Haitians, either set in Miami or in Haiti itself. It explores the realities of being a migrant, the dangerous situations of the boat people, natural disasters and yearning for a “home”.

Each story was extremely moving and they all give something to think about as each was centred around a major decision that either is making the present or made the past.

I highly recommend getting your hands on this book!

Happy publication to this incredible book and thank you so much to @quercusbooks for providing me with an ARC on @netgalley.

I am not a huge fan of short stories collections, mostly because I cannot switch characters and settings that fast and usually just when I start getting in the story, it seems to end. Nonetheless, I was really interested in this particular collection because it was Reese's BC pick for August 2020 and I do tend to like most of her book picks.

And I have to admit I am not sorry I decided to give it a try. With eight stories in total, I did like most of them. They were little fragments of lives of women from Haiti and Caribbean, exploring their relations with their family, friends and lovers, but also telling the story about their roots, their homeland and their diasporic lives. Only the last story was written from a pov of a man, and even though it was so sad and served as a perfect ending to the collection, I did find it a bit not synced with the rest of them.

Big thanx to the NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange of my honest opinion.

This is an outstanding collection of 8 beautifully constructed short stories from Edwidge Danticat, wide ranging in scope, superb in their exploration of the intricate and complex nature of relationships, familial, personal and friendships, of love, loss, grief, trauma and heartbreak. At the heart of the stories are primarily Haitians, in Little Haiti in Florida and in Haiti itself, capturing the nature of being a migrant, the precarious and dangerous position of being part of the boat people, forming the diaspora, connections with Haiti, some yearning to return, and the impact of natural disasters such as earthquakes in the home country. There are marriages, some of which are detours in life, others that are more dispassionate affairs, an ex-husband wanting money from his ex-wife, Elsie, to pay the ransom for his abducted wife, Olivia.

25 year old Nadia arrives on a plane with the intention of meeting her dying father for the first time, a tale referencing Albert Camus's The Stranger, finding herself involved in the funeral rites. A young nanny with AIDS works in a hotel, naive enough to believe in the Port-au-Prince marriage special, with her love me and leave me ring. Anika Thomas is meeting her married lover for the first time in 7 months, luring him with the promise of a gift, mourning her spirit child, sketching birds, her lover a scarred and changed man after being struck by tragedy and mental health issues. Two women, students from widely different social and economic backgrounds form a close relationship, one with a tattoo on her chest that looks like two hot air balloons. Carole, suffering from dementia, has little truck with a daughter experiencing problems after giving birth to her son, all of which culminates with its echoes of childhood games such as peekaboo, sunrise and sunset, a hello and goodbye.

At the age of 7, two small girls forge a unforgettable connection in Brooklyn, New York, never to see each other again, until as adults, Callie, now the Prime Minister's wife, invites Kimberly to the island after reading her short story, a friendship arising from devastating trauma. A man's life flashes in front of him as he plummets from the top of a building on a construction site to his death as he lands in the cement mixer. A period which illuminates his relationship with Darline and his son, Paris, of being saved after the terrors and dangers of being one of the boat people. Danticat's use of the short story format is extraordinarily expert in encapsulating emotional depth, subtle and nuanced depictions of humanity and its myriad of relationships. A truly memorable collection of short stories that I recommend highly. Many thanks to Quercus for an ARC.

This book of short stories really astounded me with its emotional weight. I expected it to be an immersive read, but each of the tales in Everything Inside surprised me by creating an overwhelmingly beautiful montage of sadness, faith and hope.

The highlight of the stories is the complexities of the characters and the way the author portrays their anxieties, confidences, and qualms. Danticat's writing is so introspective it’s very easy to be drawn into the lives played out on the pages. Each story covers themes of poverty, culture, immigration, family and courage, and link to Haiti, the birthplace of the author. I love that the book’s heavier topics are explored with a vulnerability that helps the reader understand the pain of the women in each scene.

Overall, Everything Inside is (without a doubt) a five-star read. As with most short story collections, there are some that stand out more than others, but together they are an art form with enriching writing and a melodious pace. The hardships the characters face are both disconcerting and electrifying. And the well-written accounts gripped me from start to finish.

The eight stories all feel as if they were perfectly crafted to build a poignant collection. Danticat skilfully structures her simple prose to demonstrate a wealth of emotion with ease. Subtly, the history and foundation of each story comes together, to fill out the dynamically haunting narrative. The stories never felt too short, but no word felt wasted. It’s easily one of the best fictional collections I’ve read, and an astonishing piece of Caribbean literature.

It is always good to try a different author but sadly this book did not do it for me. The stories did not enable me to engage and I did not feel compelled to continue reading but struggled on. Maybe I just needed something more upbeat.

This collection of deftly written short stories reveal the artistic ability, observational skills, depth of insight and sensitivity of their author. The characters are beautifully human, relatable and flawed, as subject to the vagaries of love and loss as we all are.

This colourful cast of varied characters come alive on the page and are fleshed out with masterly aplomb. It’s as if Danticat gets under their skin and gains entry to the psyche, with its attendant joys and anxieties, as she perfectly depicts what makes them tick.

These short stories excel as miniature novels in themselves, replete with messy beginnings and loose endings. Each one is a vignette snapshot of life, an intimate glimpse into a moment or a potted history sometimes.

Though I enjoyed them all, my favourites are Sunrise Sunset and The Port-au-Prince Marriage Special. This is a skilful writer with a strong finger on the pulse of her own cultural history and identity, who draws us in with every line she writes.

Few have happy endings, but they all share traces of joy, coupled with poignancy, and a sense of wanting to make the most of the moments because they vanish all too soon. And there is hope, threading through them all like a golden cord. Grateful thanks to Quercus books/riverrun and NetGalley for the ARC.

An enthralling, emotive, series of short stories. The protagonists in each story all have links to Haiti, and each story looks at mortality in many forms and how people face it in different ways. The book is well written, moving and engaging, and  unique - it left an impact on me after finishing each story.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories by Edwidge Danticat. The stories all feature Haiti and Haitians in some way, although many of the stories are located in other countries, which gave me an insight into the Haitian diaspora experience through different eyes.

The tone of the book is quiet and thoughtful, dealing with real human emotions of love and loss.

Beautiful. A solid four stars.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

Oh how I loved these stories. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy.

I've always been an Edwidge Danticat fan but hadn't read her in years. This story collection reaffirmed my love for her writing and for the endlessly fascinating subject that is post-colonial literature by Afro-Caribbean women: a fountain of depth, beauty, struggle, pain, oppression, resistance and survival. A true gem that will touch your heart and keep you wanting more from each story, from each character, from this fabulous author!

Fabulous stories, all unique in their own way. Each one is carefully crafted, the authors talent is one to really relish and be in awe of.
A must read.