Zo : a novel

Format:

Book

Title:

Zo : a novel

Author:

Miller, Xander author

ISBN:

9781101874127

Edition:

First edition.

Publication:

New York : Alfred A.Knopf, 2020.

Physical Description:

327 pages : map ; 22 cm

General Note:

"A Borzoi Book"--Title page verso.

Summary:

"A riveting fiction debut--a love story, told in gorgeous prose, and set on an extraordinary stage: Haiti, on the eve of the 2010 earthquake. When we first meet Zwazo Delalun--Zo--as a young orphan in a fishing village in Haiti, he already possesses every trademark of a hero: he's handsome, strong, independent, honest, courageous, and determined to make a life for himself, on his own terms. As he grows up, Zo comes to possess something else, too--an unfailing instinct for how to make a woman happy. And yet he has never been in love. Until the morning when, working under the broiling sun as a day laborer, he meets the stunning twenty-one-year-old Anaya. Instantly, fiercely, the two are attracted to each other. But Anaya's rich and powerful father wants her to marry the man he has chosen for her--a well-regarded doctor, just like himself. Zo and Anaya therefore love in secret, wherever they can, and at any hour they can find. But just as they think they have found a way to be together, an unstoppable force crosses their path: an earthquake that roils the ground beneath their feet and rips their country apart. Lost to one another, wounded, each fears the other has died. In the face of the suffering that blankets the island, Zo must risk everything to try to find the woman he loves. Impassioned and suspenseful, this luminous debut captures the sensory splendor of Haiti as it tells an unforgettable story--of love and heartbreak, forgiveness and redemption"-- Provided by publisher.

"A novel about a poor Haitian laborer who falls in love with the daughter of a wealthy doctor, and their fight to stay together in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake"-- Provided by publisher.

Subject(s):

Poor men -- Fiction.

Fathers and daughters -- Fiction.

Haitians -- Fiction.

Haiti Earthquake, Haiti, 2010 -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Genre:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Salem Main Library	Miller, X.	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

Set in Haiti, a breathtaking love story--a saga of passion, tenacity, and hope in the face of disaster

We first meet Zwazo Delalun, or Zo, during his childhood, in the 1990s, in a fishing village on the western tip of Haiti. An orphan, he learns to swim and fish, then to harvest almonds and cut cane. He travels the island in his youth, finding work wherever he can. One morning, while hauling cement in the broiling sun, he meets Anaya, a nursing student who is sipping cherry juice under a tree.

Their attraction is instantaneous, fierce; what grows between them feels like the destiny-changing love Zo has yearned for. But Anaya's father, protective and ambitious on behalf of his only daughter, cannot accept that a poor, uneducated man such as Zo is good enough for her, and he sends Anaya away to Port-au-Prince. Then something even more shattering happens: on January 12, 2010, a massive earthquake churns the ground beneath the capital city, destroying nearly everything in its wake, leaving the dead unnumbered, and forever altering the course of life for those who survive.

At once suspenseful, heartrending, and gorgeously lyrical, Zo is an unforgettable journey of heroism, grief, redemption, and persistence against all odds. With a modern-day Romeo and Juliet story at its core, this novel brings us vividly to Haiti at a moment of historic tragedy and transformation, as it tells a luminous tale of unlikely love.

Author Notes

XANDER MILLER has lived in Ohio, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, California, and Pennsylvania. He worked at national parks and monuments, and as an emergency medical technician. After the 2010 earthquake, he traveled to Haiti, where he served as a volunteer EMT and founded a nonprofit called Ambulance for Haiti; he also met his wife, Naomi, in her hometown of Petit-Goâve. He is currently a physician assistant, and Zo is his first novel.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Miller's resonant debut is a coming-of-age romance set in the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where Zo, an orphan and the "poorest man in the western world" grows up in a tiny fishing village and proves to be adept at the art of seduction. While working as a laborer mixing and hauling cement, Zo's life is transformed after a chance meeting with aspiring nurse Anaya Leconte, the well-heeled 20-year-old daughter (and descendent of Haitian president Cincinnatus Leconte) of a wealthy doctor who also happens to be Zo's boss, and Zo instantly falls for her. Anaya and Zo become secret lovers in defiance of the marriage Leconte has planned for Anaya. The two flee to Port-au-Prince and elope to the hills above the city--only to become separated during the 2010 earthquake. Each believing the other dead, Zo and Anaya nonetheless remain devoted to their love as they navigate the changed island in all its disarray. Miller traveled to Haiti after 2010 as an EMT and admits in a note that, as an American, "he is an unlikely choice" to set a story there. Though Miller relies on tropes of Haitian history to move the story along, he does justice to his belief that Haitians have survived by saving themselves, not through outside intervention. While other writers better describe Haiti, the love story of Zo and Anaya tugs the heartstrings. (Aug.)

Kirkus Review

A picaresque romance set in contemporary Haiti. Zo is a child when a professor tells him that, as a penniless orphan in the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, he might be "the poorest man in the Western world." Zo is certainly poor, but he is enterprising, willing to do any work that pays. Eventually, he discovers that his capacity to divine what women need is, perhaps, his truest vocation. He's working a construction job when he gets his first glimpse of his employer's daughter. What follows is a story of star-crossed romance threatened by class and--eventually--the earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010. Miller's writing is vivid and engaging, filled with richly imagined scenes and fully formed characters. Zo is an easy protagonist to root for, and Anaya makes for a pleasingly complex foil and partner. She is a real, contemporary woman while Zo--a poor orphan who grows into a man of prodigious strength and sexual prowess--is like a figure from legend. The knowledge that Miller is a white man from the United States writing about black people in Haiti may affect how some readers react to this novel. The depiction of Zo as a spectacular physical specimen--an indefatigable lover and superhuman laborer--becomes complicated when framed within the history of white people talking about black bodies. In a lengthy author's note, Miller explains that he became acquainted with Haiti when he traveled there to work as an EMT in the aftermath of the earthquake he writes about. He thanks numerous Haitians he got to know at that time. He asserts that he "is not a Haiti expert" while praising Haitian authors. The fact remains that Miller is a white man from the United States writing about black people in Haiti at a moment when authors, readers, publishers, and critics are talking about who should tell whose stories--and, just as importantly, who gets generous advances and the prestige of publishing with legacy houses. To the extent that this novel gains critical and popular attention, this is almost certainly going to be a factor in its reception. This beautifully written debut lands in the middle of a debate about representation in American literature. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

As a boy, Zwazo Delalun was told by a teacher that he was possibly the "poorest boy in the Western hemisphere." An orphan from a poor fishing village in Haiti, Zo had no other option but to fight his way to a better life by travelling the island to work in the cane fields, almond orchards, and at sea. In a job hauling cement under the burning Haitian sun, he meets a young trainee nurse, Anaya, who uses her medical training to cure him of a bout of malaria that has plagued him for months, and her beauty and character capture his heart. Despite her father's stern disapproval, she leaves her familial comforts to make a life with Zo. Then the 2010 earthquake hits. Miller's debut is a provocative modern rendition of the Romeo and Juliet story. Set against the backdrop of a country ravaged by nature, and written in raw and affecting prose, Zo's story takes the reader to the very limits of what a person will do for love.