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 . . .
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
“A tremendous feat that left me with chills. Backstitch is a powerful and wise novel about the intertwined threads between history and memory, revolution and pride, hauntings and haints. 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
“In Backstitch, Idrissa Simmonds-Nastili has written a novel of extraordinary tenderness about the ways mothers shape us, the stories families carry, and the histories that ripple through generations...Her novel lingers in the spaces where family stories become history, and where love and loss are carried across generations. 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
“Reading Backstitch is like holding your breath and chipping through a sea of sound while wearing your finest garments to the fête. These pages reveal 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
“Idrissa Simmonds-Nastili has written an expertly crafted multigenerational epic, a remarkable rendition of Haitian cosmology— replete with the supreme Bondye; powerful Lwas and water spirits; Ginen, the eternal homeland; vèvès; and more. In this novel, ghosts and spirits travel alongside the living. Here is a fully fleshed-out afterlife — an afterworld that is very much as alive as the world of the living. Simmonds also does not shy away from politics— particularly, the tensions and contradictions of fighting for one’s country while also fleeing from it. With Backstitch, Simmonds-Nastili has placed herself solidly on the map as one of the great Haitian-American novelists of our time. Prepare yourself for a thrilling physical and metaphysical ride!”Chinelo Okparanta, author of Under the Udala Trees
