Edwidge Danticat’s new novel ‘Dèy’ explores motherhood, grief and the concept of home

About this episode

Edwidge Danticat ’s new book Dèy opens at a mall. A Haitian American real estate agent named Magnolia is there to buy a phone for her daughter. But before she has the chance, a mass shooting breaks out. Magnolia survives, but she doesn’t tell anyone what she’s experienced. Dèy is a book about grief— the title comes from a Haitian Kreyòl word for mourning. But grief is only one of the complex ideas that the book explores. GUEST: Edwidge Danticat : Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor of the Humanities in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University. Her book Breath, Eyes, Memory was an Oprah’s Book Club…