New Virtual Book Club
Breath, Eyes, Memory
Edwidge Danticat
Tuesday, July 14 at 10:00 am (date confirmed*)
OPEN TO MEMBERS ONLY - FREE
The Literary Events Committee is pleased to announce creation of a new book club exclusively for Arts Club members. Initially, this will be a virtual book club, meeting online via Zoom to discuss the book.
The Club will have a special additional feature allowing members – during the book-reading period at home – to post online comments and points of view on a new Arts Club Facebook Page for the Book Club.
OUR FIRST READING SELECTION
Breath, Eyes, Memory
Edwidge Danticat.
This work, Danticat’s debut novel, was selected for Oprah Winfrey’s book club in May of 1998. We are particularly happy to make this our first choice because Ms. Danticat was one of this year's Marfield Prize judges.
About Edwidge Danticat
Edwidge Danticat was born in Haiti in 1969 and came to the United States when she was twelve years old. She graduated from Barnard College and received an M.F.A. from Brown University. She made an auspicious debut with her first novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory, and followed it with the story collection Krik? Krak!, whose National Book Award nomination made Danticat the youngest nominee ever. She lives in New York.
Reviews
In a summary description of Breath, Eyes, Memory, Winfrey wrote:
“At the age of twelve, Sophie Caco is sent from her impoverished village of Croix-des-Rosets 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 a novel that bears witness to the traditions, suffering, and wisdom of an entire people.”
Other reviews have been equally enthusiastic:
"Danticat's calm clarity of vision takes on the resonance of folk art . . . Extraordinarily successful."
—The New York Times Book Review
"A novel that rewards the reader again and again with small but exquisite and unforgettable epiphanies."
— Bob Shacochis, Washington Post Book World
"Written in prose as clear as a bell, magical as a butterfly, and resonant as drum talk... An impressive debut."
— Julia Alvarez, author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
How to Get the Book
The book is available on Amazon in paperback, Kindle and Audible.
* This event is confirmed for Tuesday, July 14, at 10:00 am.
