The daughter of Haitian journalist and pro-democracy activist Jean Léopold Dominique, who was assassinated in 2000, Jan J. Dominique offers a memoir that provides a uniquely personal perspective on the tumultuous end of the twentieth century in Haiti. Wandering Memory is her elegy for a father and an ode to a beloved, suffering homeland. The book charts the biographical, emotional, and literary journey of a woman moving from one place to another, attempting to return to her craft and put together the pieces of her life in the aftermath of family tragedy. Dominique writes eloquently about love, loss, and traumas both horrifically specific and tragically universal. For readers familiar with Jean Dominique and his life's work at Radio Haïti, the book offers an intimate perspective on a tale of mythic proportions. For the reading public at large, it offers an approachable and resonant introduction to contemporary Haitian literature, history, and identity.
"Jan Dominique's probing and powerful memoir is both a beautiful record of a nightmarish year and a chronicle of her reawakening as a writer. Spanning her relationship with her assassinated larger-than-life father and the process of writing a novel, this book is a poignant reflection of Dominque's unique style and masterful prose, and is, like her other works, a book to be treasured and pored over
Edwidge Danticat
"This beautiful, important book is a passionate homage to Haiti and a profound meditation on memory, history, violence, and the act of creation."
