"Fiercely beautiful. . . . Brims with enchantments and surprises." –
Los Angeles Times
"Luminous. . . . Danticat's determination to face both light and dark brings the story to life. But her skill as a writer makes the balancing act a pure pleasure to read. . . . [She] is a beautiful storyteller." –
The Miami Herald
"Danticat has created a pulsing world. . . . On these pages, the human heart is laid open and the secret contents of its chambers revealed in all their beauty and agony. . . . Haunting." –
O, The Oprah Magazine
"Hypnotic. . . . Danticat creates rich and varied interior lives for her characters. . . . Heartbreaking." –
The New York Times Book Review "A revealing portrait that mixes a touch of magic with the tough reality of life in Haiti." –NPR
"Haunting. . . . Writing with lyrical economy and precision, Ms. Danticat recounts her characters' stories in crystalline prose that underscores the parallels in their lives." –
The New York Times "Vivid and intensely personal. . . . Danticat has been fixing and unfixing her native country since the appearance of her first book. . . . She is a writer . . . inhabited, a writer dedicated to opening her reader's eyes to something she keeps trying to see for herself." –
San Francisco Chronicle
"The biggest questions of life flow from the pen of this brilliant novelist. In
Claire of the Sea Light, Danticat folds the story into a package so preciously tight that we can tuck it in our hearts and keep it close and warm." –Nikki Giovanni
"[Has] the feel of a fairy tale. But its ethereal qualities are offset by its stark portrayal of life in small-town Haiti; the combination makes for a lovely book." –
New York magazine
"Danticat's language is unadorned, but she uses it to forge intricate connections. . . . The dexterity of her sympathy is an even match for her unflinching vision." –
The Boston Globe
"In a voice tuned to the frequency of sorrow, with a calmness that neither apologizes nor inflames, [Danticat] lays out the terrible choice that many in Haiti have faced: Keep a child in deepest poverty or offer the child to someone with better prospects. . . . A remarkably well-plotted combination of mystery and social critique." –
The Miami Herald "Danticat has a way of making small lives tell big stories. . . . The stories of the inhabitants of Ville Rose fold into one another in surprising ways; social barriers exist but are constantly transgressed–sometimes violently, sometimes with compassion and mutual understanding." –Kaiama L. Glover,
Public Books
"[An] extraordinary talent in full flower . . . . There's a Faulknerian quality to
Claire of the Sea Light . . . showing how human stories and lives ramify through and across each other in ways both touching and tragic." –
The Huffington Post "Haunted by ghosts and grief, lifted by magic and love. . . . Danticat paints each of her characters and their town with vivid detail and lyrical language. . . . [
Claire of the Sea Light] is lit with its own inextinguishable glow." –
Tampa Bay Times
"It's the core human struggles that make it impossible to put the novel down. . . . [Danticat] brilliantly sheds light on an array of human issues with sexuality, identity, politics, class. . . . A heartfelt journey." –New York
Daily News "Beautiful. . . . As usual, Danticat's sentences are sedate, graceful and unpretentious." –
The Dallas Morning News
"Masterful. . . . With
Claire of the Sea Light, Danticat stuns us again." –
Harvard Review