Read These Stories of Haitians and Haitian Americans

When I started my short story project, I knew I had to include Everything Inside. A few years ago, a good friend recommended all things Edwidge Danticat, but especially Everything Inside. Edwidge Danticat is a Haitian author now living in Miami, and her stories most often center around Haitians and Haitian Americans, each one facing complex decisions and messy relationships.

When I think about Danticat’s stories, I think about her characters. Every situation seems so real and jumps off of the page. In “Dosas,” Elsie, a caregiver for an older man, receives a call from her ex-husband, Blaise. He tells her that his girlfriend had been abducted. Will she give him some money for the ransom? “In the Old Days” follows a young woman who’s called to her estranged father’s deathbed. She didn’t even know who her father was until her mother up and tells her that he’s dying. Will she actually go to his side? How will his family and friends respond to her arrival?

In both of these stories, Danticat has placed her characters into complex situations. We, as readers, are drawn into the stories immediately, wondering how they will respond. Danticat’s stories are a masterclass in this type of writing. You can tell she knows her characters so well and crafts the stories in such a way that will keep you guessing until the very end.

Danticat also writes with such a sense of empathy for her characters. She seems to intimately understand the emotional complexities that her characters face. And her prose! It’s a delight to read (or listen to in my case—Robin Miles performs the collection beautifully!). So if you’re looking for a must-read short story collection to add to your TBR, Everything Inside would be perfect.