The Enigma of the Return
SynopsisPlot
Windsor Laferrière left Haiti in fear for his life. He has lived in Montreal for thirty-three years, and when his father dies in New York, himself an exile for half a century, Windsor travels there to attend the funeral, and then back to Haiti to inform his mother of the death. In Haiti, Windsor is faced with the grim truth of life in his homeland - the endemic poverty, the thwarted ambitions, and broken dreams. But only here can he become a writer again . . . The Enigma of the Return lives where fiction, poetry, and autobiography meet. These creative tensions sustain a narrative of astonishing beauty, clarity, and insight.
Story
About this book
In this book, Dany Laferrière follows a character named Windsor Laferrière who left Haiti decades ago, fearing for his life. He has spent thirty-three years in Montreal when his father dies in New York, a man who was himself exiled for half a century. Windsor travels to New York for the funeral, then continues on to Haiti to bring word of the death to his mother. The return sets him face to face with a homeland defined by deep poverty and unrealized hopes.
The narrative mixes fiction, poetry, and autobiography, shifting between prose passages and verse without settling into a single form. Laferrière treats exile not as a single departure but as a condition that reshapes identity over time. Windsor's long absence has made Haiti both familiar and foreign, and the book traces that disorientation with careful, concrete detail. Montreal's winter and Haiti's heat serve as opposing poles of his life.
The French original, titled L'énigme du retour, received the Prix Médicis in 2009. Laferrière, born in Port-au-Prince, left Haiti in 1976 and lived for years in Montreal before eventually settling in Paris.
