Myriam J. A. ChancyRezensionen

In this novel, Chancy attempts to remember the victims of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Through the lens of various characters, both onsite and away, dead or alive, she draws the portrait of a life-changing event. I loved Chancy's style: melodic and descriptive which conjured the fear, confusion, helplessness and grief that reigned for months and years as it reshaped the country. The mix of English, French and Kreyol adds a beautiful dimension to the text, creating a rich tapestry.
Almost every chapter is told by a new character, which does make the story at times confusing, even if the lives interweave and intersect at regular points. This said, once the names become familiar, the characters take on a touching and deeply moving quality. This is a truly sobering homage to all the victims and survivors which gives an inkling to the world of what the event must have been like.½

"At least 250,000 people died and only their closest relatives and friends remembered who they might have been; they could not be recovered, not even their names.”

Myriam J. A. Chancy's What Storm, What Thunder is a heartbreaking yet powerful work of fiction that revolves around the 7.0 magnitude 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti and left 250,000-300000 dead and many injured and homeless.
The story is told through ten voices - ten individuals from different walks of life who lives are impacted by the ‘Douz/Douze’ as the locals refer to the earthquake. Eight of these people were in Port-au-Prince when the natural disaster occurred and two have family there but were not living there when the event occurred. The author gives us a glimpse of life before, during and after the quake.

“Douz: when something terrible happens to you, it feels like a dream at first. Not until the pain and the panic settle does it seem real.”

Different settings are used to tell the story - the marketplace in Port-au-Prince , a swanky hotel frequented by the affluent and those they do business with, the IDP camp where those displaced face other hardships and atrocities within the ‘tented city’ and the outskirts where displaced people are being relocated for employment .

We also get a glimpse into the heartache and despair felt by those who did not witness the death and destruction firsthand but whose roots and family remain in Haiti .

“There is no before, no way to think before. There is only the not knowing of how to put the before together with the now. Before is a distant memory. I am still waiting to hear from those I loved, before. Waiting to hear if I can say I love, still, or if everything will remain past tense, what it was: no beyond, no goodbyes: simply after.”

Haiti’s earthquake and its devastating effects on human life is not any easy story to tell, even in fiction. But the author has exercised considerable care and restraint while crafting the stories that make this novel, remaining as true to fact that fiction allows without unnecessary embellishment. While incidents of death, trauma and sexual assault are hard to read it is commendable that the author has not gone overboard in graphic detail .
It is difficult to not be affected when you read What Storm, What Thunder. I had to take my time reading it and took breaks from the book in-between . A beautifully penned novel, Myriam J. A. Chancy's What Storm, What Thunder leaves you with a heavy heart.

Best read of 2021 !!!!!!

After Les Villages de Dieu by Emmelie Prophète, this is the second book that I read for the year which deals with subjects that I know too well: the earthquake of January 12, 2010 which literally brought Haiti to the ground , not even on her knees, lying face down in the white dust. It's a fictional story but that didn't stop me from identifying myself with the characters. In this book, we follow the stories of 10 people, all related in one way or another. Everyone experienced those seconds of terror in a different way.

I like the way Madame Chancy describes the life of each character. We have the impression that we were there, that it was our life. Each of them. It made me think back to my post-Douz experience where, even though my house had not collapsed, I slept with my family in a tent that barely struggled to accommodate us together. The book is in English but I assure you that it is easy to read.

All of this to tell you that I recommend this book with all my heart. Until recently, I did not know this talented author and that is why I would like to thank the Tin House publishing house for this such a beautiful gift, I loved, I very much appreciated. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Each chapter looks at the 2010 earthquake in Haiti through the eyes of a different yet interconnected character, some of which are easier to connect with than others.

This was a difficult book to read, not because I wasn‘t pulled in, but because the realism of the writing. This is a multi-POV fictional accounts of the Haitian earthquake of 2010 and aftermath. Profound, emotional, and book hangover worthy.

Finished on Whidbey Island. Multiple interlocking stories springing from the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Exactly the type of book/voice I was missing from my own experiences, and the reason why I sought out Indievisible/Harvard First Editions.

This is the book I have been waiting for for 12 years. Myriam Chancy has been deeply involved in the efforts to support the victims of the 2010 earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She has listened to countless tales of survivors and researched many aspects of the reasons for the great devastation as well as showing some of the post earthquake response globally. All of this informs a very stable narrative, but it is not a book of facts, although they are there. It is a book of people, of human beings in their complex lives, all abruptly meeting their tragic deaths or finding their lives forever changed. Beautifully written, calmly told, and deeply compassionate. My heart grieves.

I did not receive a review copy. I heard the book mentioned on the radio and got it from my library.

Myriam J. A. Chancy's What Storm, What Thunder is a novel of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. The fact that Haiti is just now recovering from another, equally disastrous earthquake makes this already-poignant title even more compelling.

Each chapter of the book is narrated by a different character: a market woman; a prostitute in a high-end hotel; an international business man; a young woman in a working-class family; a Haitian woman working for an NGO in Rwanda, who returns in response to the disaster; an emigree living in the U.S.; a boy who runs errands of all sorts before and after school to earn a bit of money.

At first this mix of characters confuses. They're all connected in one way or another, but those connections aren't immediately clear. The counter-balance to that is the way the book becomes more and more compelling as the reader comes to see the nature of the community made up of these varied narrators.

Chancy spends ample time in the voice of each narrator, letting readers become immersed in their inner and outer lives. The action is slow, but given how challenging day-to-day life is for most of these individuals, even before the earthquake, that slowness is part of an ongoing struggle that erits documentation.

I strongly recommend What Storm, What Thunder given its timeliness and range of viewpoints.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher; the opinions are my own.

Oh what devastation. Have mercy. Oh what horror. Have mercy. How does a body, a mind survive the destruction and aftermath? Within the pages of What Storm, What Thunder are the stories of those who survived the massive earthquake in Haiti in January, 2010 and those who did not. So much suffering, so much despair, too much, too much.

Poor Jonas who only has enough money to buy one egg today for his mother, Sara, but she is to be denied even that. She has lost her children - what defined her. Olivier, Sara’s husband, has his reasons and his part of the story -his ultimate failure is to not to himself. Sara is to be denied everything.

Ma Lou tells much of the story and while her losses seem insurmountable her spirit is a guiding light for many. She remembers a son, Richard, who has surpassed his surroundings and family and left them behind - he fails - in the end he is rejoined to his beginning.

Dieudonne’ smelled the disaster in the air before it came to pass. Sonia, beauty and grace, desired by many has always turned to him depending on his knowledge and certainty. Together they see the God of Death and are unable to prepare and later wonder why they were spared.

Interconnected - Sonia’s sister Taffia, brother Paul and Aunt; Richard’s daughter Ann; Dieudonne’s distant cousin Leopold; Didier, living in Massachusetts driving a cab trying to play his music, not being able to contact his brother and sisters in Haiti not knowing if they survived - all their stories are told in detail. Their backstories, their relationships, their accomplishments and failures all laid out as are their deaths and survival. All told in exquisite prose describing the frailty of life, remembering that one catastrophic event, the struggle for survival and believing that the only way forward is to embrace the gods that had not harmed you.

Powerful, masterfully written, reminding the reader that everyone matters, then, now, always. Thank you NetGalley and Tin House for a copy.