Coexisting on the island of Hispaniola, there are deeply woven cultural and social differences between the two regions that have caused longstanding pain. This novel highlights the Haitian-Dominican conflict, the Parsley Massacre of 1937 that is rarely visited. The cane life, travay tè pou zo, the farming of bones.
Sugarcane is a major product, as it is used to make the sugar for the popular cafecitos and dulce de leche. Within their community nicknamed Algeria, Haitian transplants settle in the Dominican Republic and try to make a living as cane workers.
Friends remain loyal to each other in a world where they are misunderstood. They sneak off to lemon-grass scented days and nights, each some form of solace for the other who has been forced to abandon family. Haitian lovers, Annabelle and Sebastien, find their worlds intertwined as they both try to make it in a new land one a cane worker, the other a housekeeper. Sensuality appears through bursts of lyricism, spurts of softness within pointed language. This harrowing story balances its sadness with love interludes. It is not often one reads a story with death and loss as its theme and still find beauty in the melancholy. I looked to my dreams for softness, for a gentler embrace, for relief from the fear of mudslides and blood bubbling out of the riverbed, where it is said the dead add their tears to the river flow.
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