The Rainy Season

Through a series of personal journeys, interwoven with scenes from the country's past, Amy Wilentz documents her arrival in Haiti in 1986, days before the ousting of Haiti's President for Life, Jean-Claude Duvalier, and shows how the hope of change turned to disappointment when liberation led to chaos and stagnation. In Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, Wilentz leads the reader through the streets, bustling by day, and by night filled with gunfire and burning tyres. She explores the countryside where young soldiers control road-blocks and farmers struggle to survive, and where belief in voodoo, the peasants' religion, is as strong as ever. Wilentz offers portraits of today's Haitians - Father Aristide the rebel priest and spiritual force behind the opposition, the various military-backed leaders, the wild children who roam the streets, the State Department men, the Christian missionaries, and the international press corps who jet in for each coup. Amy Wilentz has written articles on Haiti for "The Village Voice", "The Nation", "Grand Street" and "Newsday".