From the bestselling author ofEverything Insidecomes a vivid, timely story, moving from Haiti to Brooklyn to Miami, of a woman whose sense of self and family are called into question when she gets caught in a random act of violence one sunny Florida day.

Is home the place where we are born? Or is it the place where we die? These questions haunt Magnolia, a successful Haitian American real estate agent in Miami. When she hears gunfire while at a shopping mall, she takes shelter in a nearby restaurant, cowering with fellow shoppers and diners. Once shes safely home, Magnolia keeps this traumatic event from everyone. But given her life back, she begins to see everything clearly: her extraordinary bond with her daughter, Zo; her nearly broken relationship with Zos father; the challenges of her mentally troubled mother, whose unraveling patterns Magnolia worries shes spiraling toward herself; and her fathers affair with a woman who has borne him a child. While struggling through the labyrinth of her past, Magnolia must also come to terms with the losses sustained that life-altering day, and nearly every day by her parents and sibling in Haiti.

Can love or family protect us from harm? Does optimism or fear win out in ones heart? Which side will prevail for Magnolia? Pulled between these questions, each of which involves a high-stakes choiceMiami or Haiti, single or married, mortal or ghost, before or afterMagnolia is a narrator who is yon pati koukouy, part firefly: flitting and shimmering between different worlds.

Taking as its title a Haitian Kreyl word for mourning,Dyis a profoundly warm and moving novel about the importance not only of sharing grief but also of inseverable family ties. Brave and striking,Dyis one of Danticats most powerful and deeply affecting works yet, told with her signature unfaltering voice and evocative beauty (The Boston Globe).