How to Escape from a Leper Colony: A Novella and Stories (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781555975500)

An enthralling debut collection from a singular Caribbean voice

For a leper, many things are impossible, and many other things are easily done. Babalao Chuck said he could fly to the other side of the island and peek at the nuns bathing. And when a man with no hands claims that he can fly, you listen.

The inhabitants of an island walk into the sea. A man passes a jail cell's window, shouldering a wooden cross. And in the international shop of coffins, a story repeats itself, pointing toward an inevitable tragedy. If the facts of these stories are sometimes fantastical, the situations they describe are complex and all too real.

Lyrical, lush, and haunting, the prose shimmers in this nuanced debut, set mostly in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Part oral history, part postcolonial narrative, How to Escape from a Leper Colony is ultimately a loving portrait of a wholly unique place. Like Gabriel García Márquez, Edwidge Danticat, and Maryse Condé before her, Tiphanie Yanique has crafted a book that is heartbreaking, hilarious, magical, and mesmerizing. An unforgettable collection.

Author: Tiphanie Yanique
ISBN-10: 155597550X
ISBN-13: 9781555975500
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Language: English
Published: 03/02/2010
Pages: 240
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.67lbs
Size: 8.96h x 6.10w x 0.57d
Award: Hurston/Wright LEGACY Award - Nominee

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 01/11/2010 pg. 31
Library Journal 03/01/2010 pg. 81
Booklist 03/01/2010 pg. 48