"An elegiac and moving portrait of Haitians as they experienced the devastating 2010 earthquake in Port-au-Prince, this novel offers an ensemble of resilient, hopeful characters, haunted by those they mourn, but faithful for a better future."
"A really beautiful, incredibly powerful portrait of a community."
"A stunning commentary on racism, sexual violence, capitalism and the resilience required to rebuild a life."
"A must-read. . . . a singular story of strength, sorrow, heartbreak, and love."
"Compelling. . . . 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."
"Masterful."
"Myriam J. A. Chancy is a masterful writer. The book is devastating and tender, but it is not a spectacle of sadness—it is a show of humanity and care in the midst of great violence."
"A heartbreaking tale of regret and resilience, and a fiery rebuke of racism, violence and greed."
"Virtuosic."
"A beautiful, haunting chorus of voices. This is a heartbreaking book, a striking achievement."
"Lending her voice to ten survivors whose lives were indelibly altered by the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Myriam J. A. Chancy’s sublime choral novel not only describes what it was like for her characters before, during, and after that heartrending day, she also powerfully guides us towards further reflection and healing."
"A gorgeous and compulsively readable page-turner in the most haunting and stunning prose. If you love the works of Jesmyn Ward, Edwidge Danticat, and J. M. Coetzee, this is the book for you! Absolutely breathtaking!"
"This is fiction as an act of bearing witness. . . .Chancy’s lush prose engages shifting and intersecting points of view that reflect the contours of an island nation borne of anti-colonial rebellion."
"Devastating. . . . Extraordinary."
"Searing. . . . Chancy’s fictional portrait of the survivors and victims is both ode and elegy."
"Many of us are hungry for stories of survival and resilience in this precarious world where the for-grantedness of life is fractured. This book delivers."
The San Francisco Chronicle
"Not since W. G. Sebald has somebody succeeded in evoking such a rich sense of the history of disaster. . . . She has unimpeachable credibility—and a clear purpose: People do persist, not merely suffer."
"A plaintive and beautiful love song to Haiti."
"This novel, narrated by a cast of courageous and compelling characters, resonates with hope and resilience."
"Fascinating. . . . intimately written in such a way that you feel it."
NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour
"What Storm, What Thunder is a beautiful book. . . . Myriam's novel makes what was lost when the earth opened up so clear."
"Beautiful and breathtaking."
"Powerful and compelling."
★ 08/16/2021
The 2010 earthquake in Haiti provides the backdrop for the extraordinary latest from Chancy (The Loneliness of Angels ). “The earth had buckled and, in that movement, all that was not in its place fell upon the earth’s children, upon the blameless as well as the guilty, without discrimination,” remembers survivor Ma Lou, a market woman. Multilayered, lyrical, and told by 10 people affected by the disaster, all connected by blood or friendship, Chancy’s dazzling take considers a myriad of topics including sexual violence, racism, a dysfunctional government, and capitalism. There’s Ma Lou’s estranged, wealthy water executive son, Richard, who returns to Haiti on a business trip from Paris just before the earthquake, and drowns while having an anti-capitalist epiphany; Richard’s daughter, Anne, an architect working in Rwanda who returns to help after the quake; Taffia, 15, who lives for much of the year in a displaced persons camp, where she is raped and gets pregnant; and Didier, her brother, an undocumented cab driver in Boston who is often stiffed and sometimes beaten by his fares due to his skin color. Didier hears about the tragedy on NPR and wishes he could know if his family are safe while feeling guilty for pursuing his own life. There are many endings, with shifting fortunes and stories involving vodou, and it all coheres with a poignant mission involving Ma Lou and Anne four years after the earthquake. Each of the voices entrances, thanks to Chancy’s beautiful prose and rich themes. This is not to be missed. (Oct.)
"Poignant."
"Masterfully written and unforgettable."
"Chancy promises to illuminate the lives of people who in America are often fleeting visions on 24-hour news channels, noticed only when disaster happens."
"Incredibly powerful."
"Unmissable."
"A gorgeous, intimate voice. . . . A reminder of the extraordinary resilience, then as now, of the Haitian people."
"Riveting."
"Heartbreaking and haunting, this exploration of life in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after it’s hit by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake is sure to stay with you."
"Deeply haunting."
"Written by a Haitian Canadian American author, this novel paints Haiti’s 2010 earthquake and its aftermath through 10 points of view, from a wealthy water executive to an architect returning from Rwanda to deal with the earthquake’s aftermath."
The New York Times Book Review
"Remarkable. . . . Every element of the writing and characterization delivers a poignant experience."
"Weaves together stories that will both break your heart and highlight the resilience of survivors."
"Enchanting in its complexity, inviting but also deeply haunting."
"Unforgettable."
"An affecting and immersive—an important—book."
★ 09/24/2021
On January 12, 2010, an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 people perished in Haiti's horrific earthquake. Here, Guyana Prize—winning Chancy (The Loneliness of Angels ) uses precise, exquisite language and deftly interlinked stories to convey not simply a visceral understanding of what happened that day, of the suffering incurred and the mutual support given even as help from abroad stuttered, but a portrait of Haiti itself. There's heart-of-the-community market woman Ma Lou and young Jonas, who buys eggs from her and runs errands for Dieudonné, business partner and companion to high-class sex worker Sonia; Jonas's mother, Sara, who lost him and her two little girls in the earthquake and is now visited by their ghosts; expatriate businessman Richard, cousin to Dieudonné and neglectful son to Ma Lou; drug-running Trinidadian Leopold, also cousin to Dieudonné; Sonia's siblings Taffia and Paul, who find their mother after the earthquake but whose troubles continue in one of the innumerable tent cities set up after the earthquake; and their older brother Didier, a Boston-based musician anguishing from afar while pondering the awful strictures of Black life in the United States. All are remarkable and remarkably drawn characters whose heartrending experiences convey what it's like "having to live in the after, always, remembering the before." VERDICT A highly recommended account of a terrible tragedy that also illuminates the deep interconnectedness of Haitian society.—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal
★ 2021-07-14
On Jan. 12, 2010, a massive earthquake struck the island of Hispaniola, changing the face of Haiti forever. Between 250,000 and 300,000 people are estimated to have perished, many of them in the crowded capital of Port-au-Prince, while 1.5 million others were left homeless. In her searing new novel, Chancy, who spent years talking to survivors, sifts through the wreckage of this inconceivable calamity. She has shaped the stories of the living and the dead into a mighty fictional tapestry that reflects the terror, despair, and sorrow of the moment as she examines questions of Haitian identity in a world that doesn’t seem to care. Among her unforgettable characters are a desperate husband who abandons his grief-stricken wife in a sprawling, dangerous tent city; a sex worker who steps out of a hotel moments before it collapses; a drug trafficker trapped in an elevator who begins to reassess his life; a wealthy businessman who left Haiti and has returned to make a deal at the worst possible moment; a teenage girl terrorized by a former classmate in the refugee camp; a Haitian cab driver in Boston who has discovered religion and the perils of being Black in America; and an architect who returns home from Rwanda, where she'd been working for an NGO, only to find herself stymied by bureaucracy and unable to help anyone. The thread that connects these voices is Ma Lou, a market woman who has witnessed the tides of fortune in Port-au-Prince for decades and who holds no illusions about the future. The stories are not always easy to read, but they shouldn’t be. Chancy offers fleeting redemption for some characters, but she does not deal in false hopes. “We all look away unless it’s us, or someone we love, going up in flames,” one character muses. In this devastating work, Chancy refuses to let any of us look away.
A devastating, personal, and vital account.
