Lavil (Paperback)

Voice of Witness

ISBN 10: 1784786829 / ISBN 13: 9781784786823

Verlag: Verso Books, London, 2017

Beschreibung

Paperback. Half a dozen years after the deadliest earthquake in the history of the Western Hemisphere struck Haiti, the island nation remains in crisis, but the international community no longer seems interested. This immersive and engrossing book, based on five years of research and scores of interviews translated from Haitian Kreyol, gives voice to the continuing struggle of Haitian people to reconstruct their nation from the devastation of the earthquake, and from many decades of political and economic disaster. The earthquake killed more than 200,000, rendered more than a million and a half homeless, and wiped out what little infrastructure existed in the country. But prior to the quake, half the country was illiterate and two-thirds of Haitians lived in poverty. This book makes clear the long genesis of the ongoing crisis and illuminates the depths of the continuing problems, and does so through some of the most marginal and least-heard people in the world. An interview with a restavek--a child sent by poor parents to work as an unpaid servant in a wealthier household--is an example. A recent study determined a figure of 173,000 restaveks--about 8 percent of the population of children. Moving stories of life in a country enduring an ongoing crisis Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.

Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 9781784786823

Bibliografische Details

• Titel: Lavil (Paperback)
• Verlag: Verso Books, London
• Erscheinungsjahr: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN-10: 1784786829
• ISBN-13: 9781784786823
• Einband: Paperback
• Zustand: new

Über diesen Titel

Inhaltsangabe

Half a dozen years after the deadliest earthquake in the history of the Western Hemisphere struck Haiti, the island nation remains in crisis, but the international community no longer seems interested. This immersive and engrossing book, based on five years of research and scores of interviews translated from Haitian Kreyol, gives voice to the continuing struggle of Haitian people to reconstruct their nation from the devastation of the earthquake, and from many decades of political and economic disaster.

The earthquake killed more than 200,000, rendered more than a million and a half homeless, and wiped out what little infrastructure existed in the country. But prior to the quake, half the country was illiterate and two-thirds of Haitians lived in poverty. This book makes clear the long genesis of the ongoing crisis and illuminates the depths of the continuing problems, and does so through some of the most marginal and least-heard people in the world. An interview with a restavek--a child sent by poor parents to work as an unpaid servant in a wealthier household--is an example. A recent study determined a figure of 173,000 restaveks--about 8 percent of the population of children.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Peter Orner edited Voice of Witness titles Underground America and co-edited Hope Deferred, and is the author of four books of fiction, including the novels The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo and Love and Shame and Love. His most recent book, Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge, was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and named a Favorite Book of 2013 by the Wall Street Journal.

Dr. Evan Lyon has worked in Haiti since 1996 and is currently the Chief Integrated Health Officer at Heartland Health Outreach in Chicago. Through his work with Partners in Health, Lyon has helped community-based responses to address HIV, tuberculosis and broader public health concerns throughout Haiti. He has also frequently collaborated with Paul Farmer on articles related to social medicine and human rights.