Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award In this powerful work of nonfiction that takes up immigration and the strength of family, Edwidge Danticat tells the story of her beloved father and uncle how her father came to the US; and how his brother later died at the hands of the Department of Homeland Security while he pleaded asylum trying to escape untenable violence at home.

Remarkable. . . . A fierce, haunting book about exile and loss and family love. The New York Times

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 shes 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. ButBrother Im Dyingsoon 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: Edwidges firstborn, who will bear his nameand the familys stories, both joyous and tragicinto the next generation.

Brother Im Dyingis a true-life epic on an intimate scale: a deeply affecting story of home and familyof two mens lives and deaths, and of a daughters great love for them both. Universally praised by critics and readers upon its original publication in 2007, it remains just as relevant today.

Edwidge Danticat is the author of numerous books, includingClaire of the Sea Light,aNew York Timesnotable book;Brother, I’m Dying,a National Book Critics Circle Award winner and National Book Award finalist;Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah Book Club selection;Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist;The Farming of Bones, an American Book Award winner; andThe Dew Breaker, a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist and winner of the inaugural Story Prize. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she has been published inThe New Yorker,The New York Times, and elsewhere. She lives in Miami.

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publish Date: September 9, 2008
• Pages: 288
• Language: English
• Type: Paperback
• EAN/UPC: 9781400034307
• Dimensions: 8.0 X 5.1 X 0.8 inches | 0.6 pounds
• BISAC Categories: Biography & Memoir, Politics, Literary Fiction