The Dew Breaker (18 page)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For my father, who, thank goodness, is not in this book. And for my cousin Hans Adonis, who is the book’s parènn, because of all the Duvalier-era research he so lovingly bombarded me with.

Thank you, Laura Hruska, Charles Rowell, Jacqueline Johnson, Brad Morrow, Deborah Treisman, Alice Quinn, Leslie Casimir, Nicole Aragi, and Robin Desser for midwifing and support.

In “The Dew Breaker,” the line “Impossible to deepen that night” is from Graham Greene’s novel about Haiti,
The Comedians
. “Tu deviens un véritable gendarme, un bourreau” is from Jacques Stephen Alexis’
Compère Soleil General
. I’m grateful to Patrick Lemoine for his extremely powerful memoir,
Fort Dimanche, Dungeon of Death
. And to Bernard Diederich and Al Burt for their wonderful book
Papa Doc
and the Tonton Macoutes.

And in one great big breath, welcome to our brood, Zora dear, we love you so much. Manman Nick, Tonton Moïse, you’re greatly missed. We row on without you, but I know we’ll meet again.

And finally—

Question:

Two trees, 10 feet apart. Taller tree, 50 feet tall, casts a 20-foot shadow. Shorter tree casts a 15-foot shadow. The sun’s shining on each tree from the same angle. How tall is the shorter tree?

Answer:

The shorter tree (x) is 37.5 feet tall.

Questions courtesy of
Master the GED
(2003 edition), published by Thompson/Arco, written by Ronald Kaprov, Steffi Kaprov, and Barbara Hull. Answer courtesy of Jean Pierre Benoît.

Edwidge Danticat

THE DEW BREAKER

Edwidge Danticat was born in Haiti and moved to the United States when she was twelve. She is the author of several books, including
Breath, Eyes, Memory
, an Oprah Book Club selection;
Krik? Krak!
, a National Book Award finalist; and
The Farming of Bones
, an American Book Award winner. She is also the editor of
The Butterfly’s Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States
and
The Beacon Best of 2000: Great
Writing by Men and Women of All Colors and Cultures
.

Also by Edwidge Danticat

FICTION

The Farming of Bones
Krik? Krak!
Breath, Eyes, Memory
NONFICTION

After the Dance: A Walk Through Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti

FOR YOUNG READERS

Anacaona, Golden Flower
Behind the Mountains

AS EDITOR

The Butterfly’s Way: Voices from the Haitian
Dyaspora in the United States
The Beacon Best of 2000: Great Writing
by Men and Women of All Colors and Cultures

FIRST VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES EDITION, MARCH 2005

Copyright © 2004 by Edwidge Danticat

Vintage and colophon are registered trademarks and Vintage
Contemporaries is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

“The Book of the Dead,” “Seven,” and “Water Child” first appeared in
The New Yorker.
“Seven” also appeared in
Best American Short Stories 2002
(Houghton Mifflin, 2002) and
The O’Henry Prize Stories 2002 (Anchor Books, 2002). “The Book of Miracles” first
appeared in slightly different form as “The Dew Breaker” in
Gumbo: A Literary Rent Party
 (Broadway Books, 2002). “Night Talkers” appeared in
Callaloo
(Fall 2002) and in
Best American Short Stories 2003
(Houghton Mifflin, 2003). An earlier version of
“Monkey Tails” appeared as “From the Journals of Water Days 1986” in
Callaloo
in 1989 and again in
Making Callaloo: 25 Years of Black Literature
(St. Martin’s
Press, 2002). An earlier, and much shorter, version of “The Dew Breaker”
appeared as “Dies Irae” in
Conjunctions
in 2000.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows:
Danticat, Edwidge.
The dew breaker / Edwidge Danticat.—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Haiti—Fiction. 2. Haitian Americans—Fiction. 3. Brooklyn
 (New York, N.Y.)—Fiction. 4. Torture—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3554.A5815086 2004
813’.54—dc22 2003060788

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eISBN: 978-0-307-42839-4

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