Journal Article

Author Meets Translator: Kettly Mars and Nathan H. Dize

Dize, Nathan H

2023

Overview

The central thread of the novel, the story's trigger, is the fact that this family, my family, my family by marriage, received this information, this order to bring home a brother, a son (my brother-in-law) who had been in a psychiatric institution in Haiti for about forty years. [...]when they returned to Haiti, you know the process of mental decline is not reversible in most cases and so he got to a point where he had to be committed. [...]it was all a big shock to the family. Since my own integration into the family over twenty years prior to these events, I had always heard spoken of this brother but very rarely, always indirectly. After spending time sitting with this person staring at you with little to say in the visiting area of an institution, when you go home it takes a good two to three days to shake off everything that it elicited and return to a more or less normal life. Because this is life. [...]they are surrounded by a group of staff who live in the courtyard and who serve as a mirror, a reflection of the lives of their employers.

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Subject: Earthquakes / Mental disorders / Schizophrenia / Science fiction & fantasy