BREATH, EYES, MEMORY

Robin Miles is the perfect narrator for this moving, morally complex novel about 12-year-old Sophie, raised in a stunningly poor village in Haiti by her aunt and grandmother, who is sent to New York to live with her mother whom she barely remembers. Danticat brilliantly realizes the contrasts Sophie must make sense of, the beauty and deprivation, safety and danger of Haiti, the love and harm that descends through generations of her matriarchal family, the culture and mores of native-born African-Americans versus the Haitian traditions of her mother's generation. Miles captures the shades of difference among these cultures and generations and, above all, the distinctive Haitian Creole accent of Sophie's world. Her work is sympathetic and skillful, a match for Danticat's ultimately harrowing novel. B.G. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 07]