Village Weavers

Myriam J. A. Chancy
Village Weavers
(Tin House, April 2024)

From award-winning author Myriam J. A. Chancy, comes an extraordinary and enduring story of two families—forever joined by country, and by long held secrets—and two girls with a bond that refuses to be broken.  
In 1940s’ Port-au-Prince, Gertie and Sisi become fast childhood friends, despite being on opposite ends of the social and economic ladder. As young girls, they build their unlikely friendship—until a revelation ripples through their families and tears them apart. After François Duvalier’s rule turns deadly in the 1950s, Sisi moves to Paris, while Gertie marries into a wealthy Dominican family. Across decades and continents, through personal success and failures, they are parted and reunited, slowly learning the strange truth of their singular relationship. Finally, six decades later, with both women in the United States, a sudden phone call brings them back together once more to reckon with and—perhaps—forgive the past.

Told with power and frankness, Village Weavers confronts the silences around class, race, and sexuality, charts the moments when lives are irrevocably forced apart, and envisions two girls—connected their entire lives—who try to break inherited cycles of mistrust and find ways back into each other’s heart.

 

Praise for Village Weavers

“Just beautiful! Village Weavers is love story for our times and for all time. In Sisi and Gertie we recognise the timeless tale of a family torn apart by the forces of history but in Chancy’s hands it feels new, fresh and uniquely their own. Spanning Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Paris, Florida, Arizona and back again, this is a true Diaspora story—frankly told and sharply contemporary—that speaks into the silences around race, class, colour and the myths of nationhood, while affirming that no matter how far we are drawn apart it is the sea, the sea that holds us together.”
—Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, author of When We Were Birds
“A deeply reflective book about the resilience of the relationship between two women, which evolves from an innocent childhood friendship to a spiritual kinship that transcends the biology of blood relation. Village Weavers is a loving portrait of sisterhood, carefully and skillfully woven. A pleasure to read.”
—Cherie Jones, author of How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House

“Chancy pays homage to those estranged and passed as she brilliantly maps out a journey of reclamation. This is a defining work of impressive accomplishment.”
—Xavier Navarro Aquino, author of Velorio

 

“Mesmerizing. We witness Chancy’s radiant ability to wrestle with history, class, colorism, and racism, while telling a story that is deeply rooted in love. What the novel ultimately reaches toward, both on a personal and political level, is profoundly moving.”
—Cleyvis Natera, author of Neruda on the Park

 

“Chancy is one of our most brilliant writers and storytellers.”
—Edwidge Danticat

 

 

Myriam J.A. Chancy, Ph.D. (Iowa) is a Guggenheim Fellow, and Hartley Burr Alexander Chair of the Humanities Chair at Scripps College. Chancy is the author of the award-winning book, What Storm, What Thunder (Harper Collins Canada/Tin House USA 2021), which was named a Best Book of Fall 2021 by Time, The Washington Post, Buzzfeed, The Chicago Tribune, Vulture, Good Housekeeping, LitHub and Harper’s Bazaar and was awarded the American Book Award by the Before Columbus Foundation. WS, WT was also shortlisted for the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize, Caliba Golden Poppy Award, Aspen Words Literary Prize, and longlisted for the OCM Bocas Prize & Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She is the author of a new book of critical essays on the post-earthquake situation, Harvesting Haiti: Reflections on Unnatural Disasters (UTexas Press, 2024), and the 20th anniversary edition of her first novel, Spirit of Haiti, a finalist for the Canada/Caribbean region Commonwealth Prize 2004 appears fall 2024 with SUNY Press. Other academic publications include: Autochthonomies: Transnationalism, Testimony, and Transmission in the African Diaspora (U of IL Press, 2020), From Sugar to Revolution: Women’s Visions from Haiti, Cuba & The Dominican Republic (WUP 2012), Framing Silence: Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women (Rutgers 1997), and Searching for Safe Spaces: Afro-Caribbean Women Writers in Exile (Temple 1997), which won a Choice OAB Award. Her past novels include: The Loneliness of Angels (winner of the Guyana Prize 2011), The Scorpion’s Claw; and Spirit of Haiti. Her novel, Village Weavers, will be published by Tin House Books in 2024. Her recent writings have appeared in Whetstone.com Journal, Electric Literature, and Guernica. She is a frequently invited guest speaker, delivering talks and creative readings on the subject of Caribbean, Haitian and social justice issues.