A powerful multi-voiced novel set before, during, and after the 2010 Earthquake in Haiti, told from the points of view of ten characters whose lives were upended by the tragedy. A Spiegel & Grau audiobook
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At the end of a long, sweltering day, as markets and businesses begin to close for the evening, an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude shakes the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince. Award-winning author Myriam J. A. Chancy masterfully charts the inner lives of the characters affected by the disaster—Richard, an expat and wealthy water-bottling executive with a secret daughter; the daughter, Anne, an architect who drafts affordable housing structures for a global NGO; a small-time drug trafficker, Leopold, who pines for a beautiful call girl; Sonia and her business partner, Dieudonné, who are followed by a man they believe is the vodou spirit of death; Didier, an emigrant musician who drives a taxi in Boston; Sara, a mother haunted by the ghosts of her children in an IDP camp; her husband, Olivier, an accountant forced to abandon the wife he loves; their son, Jonas, who haunts them both; and Ma Lou, the old woman selling produce in the market who remembers them all. Artfully weaving together these lives, witness is given to the desolation wreaked by nature and by man.
Brilliantly crafted, fiercely imagined, and deeply haunting, What Storm, What Thunder is a singular, stunning record, a reckoning of the heartbreaking trauma of disaster, and—at the same time—an unforgettable testimony to the tenacity of the human spirit.
“Stunning.”
—Margaret Atwood
“Chancy offers her readers the rare opportunity to view the earthquake’s aftermath from multiple angles, with every shadow of doubt, every glimmer of hope, illuminating the ever-expanding history of the catastrophe and its devastation.”
—BOMB magazine
“This is fiction as an act of bearing witness — in this case, to the historical trauma of Haiti’s January 2010 earthquake, in which as many as 300,000 people were killed.....The condition of crisis that Chancy evokes, simultaneously unimaginable and everyday, resonates as loudly as ever."
—Vulture
“A stunning commentary on racism, sexual violence, capitalism and the resilience required to rebuild a life."
—Washington Post
“Sublime. A striking and formidable novel by one of our most brilliant writers and storytellers.”
—Edwidge Danticat
“Chancy reminds us that the headlines and statistics were but part of the story of death and destruction....In her intricate tale of how the tragedy is multiplied by systemic social failures that follow the earthquake, Chancy examines the difficult question of how people move past grief of this magnitude, personally and collectively. Every element of the writing and characterization delivers a poignant experience.”
—Booklist
“This gorgeous novel follows a diverse array of characters in the time immediately before and after the quake, and what happens when a natural disaster shakes your entire world.”
—Good Housekeeping
“In captivating and lyrical prose, Myriam J. A. Chancy brings the story of the Haiti earthquake to life, highlighting the profound ways our connections are deepened by tragedy. What Storm, What Thunder is a beautiful, haunting chorus of voices. This is a heartbreaking book, a striking achievement.”
—Zinzi Clemmons, author of What We Lose
“In this unforgettable testimony to the tenacity of the human spirit, the author artfully weaves together the lives of the people—young, old, rich, poor—who are left to deal with the aftermath of an earthquake that has shaken Port-au-Prince, Haiti.”
—New York Public Library, Best Books of 2021
“[An] incredibly powerful read.”
—Buzzfeed
“[What Storm, What Thunder] is a heartbreaking tale of regret and resilience, and a fiery rebuke of racism, violence and greed."
—Time Magazine
“Myriam Chancy has written a gorgeous and compulsively readable, page-turner in the most haunting and stunning prose. This novel is exactly what we need during this time of uncertainty and crisis. What Storm, What Thunder’s characters reveal to us how to bend and not break when facing loss, grief, and displacement. If you love the works of Jesmyn Ward, Edwidge Danticat and J.M Coetzee, this is the book for you! Absolutely breathtaking!”
—Angie Cruz, author of Dominicana, shortlisted for the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction