Moonbath

Winner of the 2014 Prix Fmina & 2015 French Voices Award After she is found washed up on shore, Ctoute Olmne Thrse, bloody and bruised, recalls the circumstances that led her there. Her voice weaves hauntingly in and out of the narrative, as her story intertwines with those of three generations of women in her family, beginning with Olmne, her grandmother. Olmne, barely sixteen, catches the eye of the cruel and powerful Tertulien Msidor, despite the generations-long feud between their families which cast her ancestors into poverty. He promises her shoes, dresses, land, and children who will want for nothingand five months after moving into her new home, she gives birth to a son. As the family struggles through political and economic turmoil, the narrative shifts between the voices of four women, their lives interwoven with magic and fraught equally with hope and despair, leading to Ctoutes ultimate, tragic fate. Yanick Lahens was born in Port-au-Prince in 1953 and is one of Haitis most prominent authors. She published her first novel in 2000, was awarded the prestigious Prix Femina in 2014 for Moonbath, and is the 2016 winner of a French Voices Award.