Danticat, Edwidge. Behind the mountains.

(First Person Fiction). Scholastic, Orchard, 153p. 2002. 0-439-37299-2. $16.95. JS*

Danticat, author of Breath, Eyes, Memory and Krik? Krak!, both highly praised novels about Haitian life, writes here for the new series of immigrant stories, First Person Fiction. (See also the novel about Cuban Americans by Veciana-Suarez, below).

The diary begins in October 2000, when Haiti is filled with violence and general unrest with the elections taking place and the promise of many changes. Celiane tells her own story, about life behind the mountains, far from the city and the problems there. Celiane's father has been in New York for many years now, and the family survives through the money he can send home to them; they treasure the tapes he sends telling them how much he loves and misses them. Celiane's brother Moy is 19, an artist who longs to live in Port-au-Prince with Tante Rose, so the family travels there to get him settled. On their return home, the van they are riding in is bombed, which serves as a catalyst finally to get Celiane's family the visas they need to go to New York to be reunited with their father.

Once in New York, after the initial joy at the reunion, their family life starts to unravel. Moy is not eager to quietly obey his father. It's freezing cold, school is difficult and lonely, and the parents work long hours at a restaurant. The father means well, but he frankly is out of touch with his children and how much older they are, especially his son, who now is a young man after all and not the young teenager the father left behind in Haiti so many years ago. Danticat brings her formidable skill as a writer and her own firsthand knowledge of Haiti and immigrating to America to this heartfelt story, told in the intimate diary format. Claire Rosser, KLIATT