Ibis
A Novel
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE HURSTON/WRIGHT FOUNDATION’S ZORA AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION; WINNER OF THE WILLIAM SAROYAN INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR WRITING (FICTION); WINNER OF THE L.A. TIMES BOOK PRIZE ART SEIDENBAUM AWARD FOR FIRST FICTION; WINNER OF THE PEN AMERICA OPEN BOOK AWARD; WINNER OF THE OCM BOCAS PRIZE FOR CARIBBEAN LITERATURE (FICTION); GEORGIA AUTHOR OF THE YEAR (FIRST NOVEL); SHORTLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE
New Felicity’s bad luck goes back centuries. Shaped by slavery, rebellion, and repression, the small coastal village in Trinidad is now facing a crackdown by the government, just as its people have taken in Milagros, an 11-year-old refugee from Venezuela. Meanwhile, scarlet ibis birds have mysteriously started appearing in town, and New Felicity’s superstitious fisherman fear the worst, certain they’ve brought on bad luck by killing a local witch. Skittish that a reporter’s story will bring down the wrath of the Ministry of National Security, the fishermen take things into their own hands.
Justin Haynes’s widely acclaimed Ibis moves backward and forward in time, from the town’s early days as a sugar plantation to Milagros’s adulthood as she searches for her mother across the Americas. A novel of mothers and daughters, origins and becomings, Ibis is a moving exploration of the migrant crisis and the contemporary Caribbean.
Customer Reviews
Caribbean Crises
Justin Haynes’ debut novel is a winner. From the opening line, it is not at all what I expected and even better than I had hoped. “Ibis” is a much-needed story in the moment that sheds light on numerous crises across the Caribbean region. Haynes employs clever techniques with language, prose, and perspective to give us a story that weaves stories of hardship and self-discovery from across the region.
Haynes’ descriptive visuals place us right into the heat, chaos, and beauty of places like Venezuela, Guyana, and Trinidad & Tobago. You get the sense over time that these are one people with a shared and disparate past. In so many ways, Caribbean people are strangers yet familiar to each other at the same time.
That said, this book is heavy with topics that warrant a trigger warning for the sensitive reader. Haynes does not shy away from showing the brutal dehumanization, sexual assault, disappearance, and family separation that is part of human trafficking. By leveraging multiple voices and perspectives, Haynes gives real gravity to the situation.
There are also some moments of reprieve in the book. Magical Realism is used to wonderful effect without being too overbearing. There is a playful fascination with ornithology that will have you searching the web for images of these majestic birds. There is also the fumbling qualities of the motley crew of island men trying to scratch out some sort of life. This is a novel a must-read, and I plan to return to it again and again.
A well crafted folktale
Complex storytelling of a compounding crisis that has received too little attention in the mainstream. The author masterfully shifts between cultural perspectives while connecting the many voices in Ibis with one central thread of colonial remittance, belonging, and generational trauma.