We're Alone
Essays
Graywolf · Print & ebook · September 3, 2024
A collection of exceptional new essays by one of the most significant contemporary writers on the world stage Tracing a loose arc from Edwidge Danticat’s childhood to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent events in Haiti, the essays gathered in We’re Alone include personal narrative, reportage, and tributes to mentors and heroes such as Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, Gabriel García Márquez, and James Baldwin that explore several abiding themes: environmental catastrophe, the traumas of colonialism, motherhood, and the complexities of resilience.
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- Who it’s for
- Essays move between intimate memory and public crises, with literature as a companion through both.
- Themes
- Environmental catastrophe, Colonial trauma, Motherhood and resilience
- Genres
- Essay Collections, Caribbean & Latin American Collections, Personal Memoirs
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Matched by what the books are about, then ordered by what their readers also loved.
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South to AmericaImani Perry, Ecco50% match
HomebodiesTembe Denton-Hurst47% match
The Undocumented AmericansKarla Cornejo Villavicencio52% match
Constructing a Nervous SystemMargo Jefferson48% matchShares Personal Memoirs
Nothing PersonalJames Baldwin, Eddie S. Glaude Jr.51% match
For younger readers: The Summer I Ate the Rich, Stupid Black Girl, A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe
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Start with this bookAbout this book
A collection of exceptional new essays by one of the most significant contemporary writers on the world stage Tracing a loose arc from Edwidge Danticat’s childhood to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent events in Haiti, the essays gathered in We’re Alone include personal narrative, reportage, and tributes to mentors and heroes such as Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, Gabriel García Márquez, and James Baldwin that explore several abiding themes: environmental catastrophe, the traumas of colonialism, motherhood, and the complexities of resilience.
Continue reading
From hurricanes to political violence, from her days as a new student at a Brooklyn elementary school knowing little English to her account of a shooting hoax at a Miami mall, Danticat has an extraordinary ability to move from the personal to the global and back again. Throughout, literature and art prove to be her reliable companions and guides in both tragedies and triumphs. Danticat is an irresistible presence on the page: full of heart, outrage, humor, clear thinking, and moral questioning, while reminding us of the possibilities of community. And so “we’re alone” is both a fearsome admission and an intimate invitation—we’re alone now, we can talk. We’re Alone is a book that asks us to think through some of the world’s intractable problems while deepening our understanding of one of the most significant novelists at work today.
Personal, Then Global
Essays move between intimate memory and public crises, with literature as a companion through both.
Come here for
- Personal narrative alongside reportage and tributes to literary mentors
- Reflections on Haiti, motherhood, colonialism, and environmental catastrophe
Expect
- A voice combining heart, humor, outrage, and moral questioning
- A contemplative passage between private experience and wider events
Where it sits
| Essay Collections | 97% |
|---|---|
| Caribbean & Latin American Collections | 37% |
| Personal Memoirs | 25% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- African American Literary Collections
- Caribbean & Latin American Collections
- Essay Collections
- Authors
- Edwidge Danticat
- Publisher
- Graywolf
- Published
- September 3, 2024
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Environmental catastrophe · Colonial trauma · Motherhood and resilience
- Reading lane
- African American Literary Collections