Synopsis
'A powerful and wise novel . . . read this now' – Crystal Hana Kim, author of If You Leave Me
Before the little girl became a Missing Child, she was Jouvay Marcelin from Flatbush . . .
1996. Serenity Marcelin is still reeling from the recent loss of her beloved mother when she agrees to take her six-year-old daughter, Jouvay, to carnival.
There, in the pulsing heat of the crowd, Serenity loses her grip on Jouvay's hand for a second, and the little girl disappears into the night.
Close to losing hope, the arrival of an ancestral ghost in her small apartment convinces Serenity that the key to this mystery lies in her family's shocking past . . .
Told through three generations of the Marcelin family, and moving from Haiti during the US occupation to the vibrant streets of New York, Backstitch weaves together the intimate secrets of a family with the sweeping history of a nation.
'A novel of extraordinary tenderness' – Nina McConigley, author of How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder
Details
Reviews
“Backstitch is a wholly original take on the eternal question of mothers and daughters. This book uses the history of Caribbean people and our diaspora to take readers to some place entirely new and alive. Idrissa Simmonds-Nastili has written a generational epic for our time—what a gorgeous rendering of what it means to live as women”Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman
“A tremendous feat that left me with chills. Backstitch is a powerful and wise novel . . . Simmonds-Nastili weaves a complex, thrilling tale about the strength of sisterhood and brilliantly ties it to Haitian spiritual traditions. Read this now”Crystal Hana-Kim, author of The Stone Home
“Tender, lyrical, and quietly powerful, this debut is a magnificent story, marvelously told. Multilayered and multigenerational, Backstitch balances vast historical scope with the intimacy of a love story. This novel asks us to consider what we carry forward, what we leave behind, and how we stitch ourselves back together”Nina McConigley, author of How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder
“An intricate telling of mothering, child loss, migration, grief, duppy, water, and memory’s unyielding power. Idrissa Simmonds-Nastili joins this generation's frontline of lush-languaged storytellers, and we are better for it”Mahogany L. Browne, author of A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe
