Backstitch

When a little girl goes missing from carnival in 1990s Brooklyn, her mother's desperate search pulls on threads stretching back to 1920s Haiti. A stunning, multigenerational epic from a powerful new voice in fiction, BACKSTITCH weaves together the intimate secrets of a family with the sweeping history of a nation.

In Jérémie, Haiti, 1921, Julia Marcelin, one of the country’s most sought-after dress designers, is propelled by the murder of her husband to fight at all costs for her country’s liberation from the US Occupation.

In Harlem, New York, 1928, Tati Marcelin arrives at the doorstep of the women’s boarding house that will become her home for the next few decades.

In East Flatbush, New York, 1998, Serenity Marcelin works as a seamstress while also caring for her six-year old daughter, Jouvay. Her life changes in an instant when over Labor Day Weekend, at Brooklyn’s J’ouvert celebrations, her daughter disappears into the crowd. After a year of dead-end leads and unimaginable grief, the sudden arrival of a ghost convinces Serenity that Jouvay will soon be found.