At an astonishingly young age， Edwidge Danticat has become one of our most celebrated new novelists， a writer who evokes the wonder， terror， and heartache of her native Haiti--and the enduring strength of Haiti s women--with a vibrant imagery and narrative grace that bear witness to her people s suffering and courage.??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.

Edwidge Danticat was born in Haiti and moved to the United States when she was twelve. She is the author of several books, including Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah Book Club selection; Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist; and The Farming of Bones, an American Book Award winner. She is also the editor of The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States and The Beacon Best of 2000: Great Writing by Men and Women of All Colors and Cultures.

Danticat earned a degree in French Literature from Barnard College, where she won the 1995 Woman of Achievement Award, and later an MFA from Brown University. She lives in Miami with her husband and daughters.