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Brother, I'm Dying | 
 enlarge | Author: Edwidge Danticat
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy Used: $12.95
You Save: $11.00 (46%)
New (43) Used (30) Collectible (7) from $12.95
Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 13926
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.5 x 1
ISBN: 1400041155
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781400041152
ASIN: 1400041155
Publication Date: September 4, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
From the best-selling author of The Dew Breaker, a major work of nonfiction: a powerfully moving family story that centers around the men closest to her heart—her father, Mira, and his older brother, Joseph.
From the age of four, Edwidge Danticat came to think of her uncle Joseph, a charismatic pastor, as her “second father,” when she was placed in his care after her parents left Haiti for a better life in America. Listening to his sermons, sharing coconut-flavored ices on their walks through town, roaming through the house that held together many members of a colorful extended family, Edwidge grew profoundly attached to Joseph. He was the man who “knew all the verses for love.”
And so she experiences a jumble of emotions when, at twelve, she joins her parents in New York City. She is at last reunited with her two youngest brothers, and with her mother and father, whom she has struggled to remember. But she must also leave behind Joseph and the only home she’s ever known.
Edwidge tells of making a new life in a new country while fearing for the safety of those still in Haiti as the political situation deteriorates. But Brother I’m Dying soon becomes a terrifying tale of good people caught up in events beyond their control. Late in 2004, his life threatened by an angry mob, forced to flee his church, the frail, eighty-one-year-old Joseph makes his way to Miami, where he thinks he will be safe. Instead, he is detained by U.S. Customs, held by the Department of Homeland Security, brutally imprisoned, and dead within days. It was a story that made headlines around the world. His brother, Mira, will soon join him in death, but not before he holds hope in his arms: Edwidge’s firstborn, who will bear his name—and the family’s stories, both joyous and tragic—into the next generation.
Told with tremendous feeling, this is a true-life epic on an intimate scale: a deeply affecting story of home and family—of two men’s lives and deaths, and of a daughter’s great love for them both.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 Of Love, migration and injustice September 16, 2007
Josiane H. Barnes (Cambridge, MA)
39 out of 39 found this review helpful
Edwidge tells the story of a modern Haitian family, her family, with great love and courage. In addition to Edwidge's family's personal events, the year 2004 was a year of great sadness and emotion for Haiti and Haitians. It was a year that was to be the celebration of the country's 200th. birthday. Haitians were full of anger at the political situation and sadness at their inability to celebrate one of the major reasons for Haitian pride, our great history. There were also terrible natural disasters, floods that killed more people than 9/11 did. It was a sad year and Edwidge was having her first baby.
While it is often said that Haitians in the US are not political refugees but economic refugees, this book shows us that family life is tied to political life. And in the face of the political and economic situation, some make the choice to emigrate at any cost as Edwidge's biological father did, and some make the choice of serving their community in Haiti as Edwidge's surrogate father and uncle did. Each man expresses love for the family in his own way either as a provider of financial support or a provider of every day love. Uncle Joseph stayed in Haiti as long as he could. When the day came that his own home was destroyed and his life was directly threatened, he decided to go to the US with no return date. That's how he encountered his death: a family man alone in a foreign hospital, shackled, voiceless, and abandoned, because he made the mistake of asking for political asylum.
For most Americans this story will be an introduction to a type of life common to many Haitians, a life of dedication to family and of cultural transitions. Edwidge's family is a hybrid of true Haitians and true Americans. As Americans they believed in respect for national institutions. But Joseph Dantica's death showed the ugly face of the Immigration Service as an institution; an institution whose clients are all voiceless, like uncle Joseph. In his life as a throat cancer survivor and in his death Edwidge becomes his voice. A beautiful voice.
A Simple Bowl of Rice, seasoned with salt: A Must Read Story of America Today September 13, 2007
Melissa Maldonado (Massachusetts, USA)
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
Edwidge Danticat once again writes gold with this unforgettable tale of America.
Edwidge Danticat is an acclaimed author with national bestseller and Oprah pick novels to her credit. This, however, is a biographical account of her own life as a Haitian immigrant dealing with, simulaneously, the slow death of her father, who came here as an illegal immigrant but died a US citizen, at the same time as her uncle, a minister who raised her for many years in Haiti, is on a path toward his own death at 81--shackled to a bed as an immigration detainee in post 9/11 America, after requesting asylum due to attempts on his own life in retaliation for UN-involved violence, his medication taken and discarded, despite the fact that he had been coming to the country for thirty years and arrived with proper documentation and a valid visa--a death hastened by his nexcusable treatment at the hands of the US government.
You will be outraged by this story, which is a testiment to both the best and worst of America, while you will learn to respect and admire the men and women who's tale it is. This is a story of love, of family, of America, and of transition. It is a lesson in justice, family, loyalty, trust, honor, pride, and betrayal. This book manages to tell an intensely human story within the context of the serious political and moral complications of American life today. It should be required reading by every American.
Simply put, it will feed your soul an entire feast with a simple bowl of rice.
Simple lives, exquisitely portrayed September 17, 2007
Gayle Williams (Greenburgh, New York USA)
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
This book is one of Ms. Danticat's finest works. If you loved her work so far, you won't be disappointed with this book. As in her other books, her writing literally sings, sometimes mournful tunes, sometimes pretty ditties. Whatever the tone of the "music," it's wonderful. As is this book.
Simply Beautiful September 23, 2007
Arlene James (NYC)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
So far, this is my favorite book by Danticat (I've read them all). It drew me in completely. And although I knew from the title that at least one life would be lost by the close of the book, I was unable to stop reading.I kept thinking that her father and uncle, not to mention the rest of her family must be very proud of her for writing such a beautiful eulogy. I also believe that the Haitian people who live with this suffering are also glad. Good work, Edwidge.
Tale of Two Fathers October 31, 2007
W. Holston (dallas, tx)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
this is an extraordinary book. It just might be the most touching tribute to a father I have ever read. The author was raised by her uncle and aunt in Haiti, when her parents were required to immigrate to the U.S. I was really moved by the affection she writes about each of these men and their loving care for her. The sections of the book that describe these two brothers reunion in Brooklyn are heartwarming. There is real tragedy in this story, yet, triumphant spirit of love in this families trials in war torn Haiti and in the United States. This is a wonderful book.
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