When The Mapou Sings by Nadine Pinede
This work of historical fiction is one that would read so well with the American classic Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and this will make sense as you get to know the premise of Pinede’s novel.
It’s 1930s Haiti, and 16-year-old Lucille and her best friend dream of growing up and opening a school where young girls like them can learn everything their heart desires. They want to teach others how to be Haitian, including how to carve and sew, how to appreciate and listen to the mountains and forests, and how to sing the songs of the island’s sacred trees, the Mapou.
Unfortunately, Lucille’s best friend disappears. Though Lucille knows she shouldn’t, she listens to the advice of the Mapou and goes to the chief of her village. Rather than help her, the chief puts her life and the life of her whole family in danger, and now, they’re forced to flee.
Lucille takes a job in Port-au-Prince working for an elite woman of Haiti. Things should be okay, but they’re not. Lucille has fallen for her boss’s son, who she was strictly forbidden from engaging with. Forced to flee once again to save her life, Lucille ends up working for an American woman doing fieldwork and research in Haiti. That woman is Zora Neale Hurston. As sweet as that should be for Lucille, well, her life cannot be the easy, carefree existence she wishes it were. Instead, she needs to figure out how to find her best friend and keep her own life safe in the meantime.
Readers who love a novel in verse will want to pick up this little gem, which marries the historical with the thrilling.
