Blue: A Novel

Written by Emmelie Prophète

Narrated by Krystel Roche

An award-winning Haitian novel about silence, beauty, and the solidarity of tears.

Airports are distillations of the world. I like thinking of them that way. The hope of leaving and the desire to come home, existing side by side. Any voyage is possible. My mind flies off toward the blue province once again. I don’t know, anymore, why I always associate it with blue. It isn’t even my favorite color.

Traveling alone from Miami to Port-au-Prince, our narrator finds comfort at the airport. She feels free to ponder the silence that surrounds her homeland, her mother, her aunts, and her own inner thoughts. Between two places, she sees how living in poverty keeps women silent, forging their identities around practicality and resilience. From a distance, she is drawn inevitably homeward toward her family and the glittering blue Caribbean Sea.

Blue comes alive through vivid images crowding the page, just as memories do in real life, as if the author is trying to sort through them, to come to grips with her own emotional conflict. Balancing the pain and anger are spiritual bonds that connect the author to the women who have come before her, who have created her, and with Haiti itself, her motherland. No amount of glittering opportunity up north can prevent her from finding her way home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Translator: Tina Kover
• Release date: Jan 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781713631736

Emmelie Prophète

Born in Port-au-Prince, where she still resides, Emmelie Prophète is a poet, novelist, journalist, and director of the National Library of Haiti. Her publications include Blue (Le testament des solitudes), which earned her the Grand Prix littéraire de l'Association des écrivains de langue française (ADELF) in 2009; Le reste du temps (2010), which tells the story of her special relationship with journalist Jean Dominique, who was murdered in 2000; Impasse Dignité (2012); and Le bout du monde est une fenêtre (2015).

Reviews for Blue

[paulmorriss · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a readable enough book, but while the hard things in the characters' lives are hard, everything else is easy and falls into place, so it doesn't really ring true.

[soosthemoose · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Typical Danielle. Nice story, happy ending.

[pammykn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

AUTHOR Steel, DanielleTITLE: BlueDATE READ 05/12/16RATING 4,5./B+GENRE/ PUB DATE/PUBLISHER / # OF PAGES Fiction/2016/322 pgs / Random HouseSERIES/STAND-ALONE: CHARACTERS Ginny Carter/ TV news reporter Blue/13-yr-old homeless boy TIME/PLACE: Present/NYCFIRST LINES The trip by jeep from the small village near Luena to Malanje in Angola, in southwest Africa, followed by a train ride to Luanda, the capital, had taken seven hours.COMMENTS: I found this story very engaging and a quick read. Ginny was a rising star in the TV news industry in LA. She was married to the anchorman and they had a 3-yr old boy. Returning home from a Christmas party they were in a fatal car accident, Ginny survived but her husband and son did not. She survived by leaving her home and work and becoming involved in SOS/HR -- a private foundation centered in NY that sent workers all over the globe to assist w/ human rights issues. Many of her assignments were to Afghanistan, Syria -- far from safe areas. She felt she had nothing to live for and putting herself in danger was not important After 3 yrs she returned to NY at Christmas time and was very depressed on the anniversary of her husband & son's death. She was about to dive into the East River when she noticed a child entering a shed …. This was the pivotal moment for her. The child was Blue a homeless 13-yr-old boy. They were both in need of someone to care for … Blue has a lot of obstacles to overcome and Ginny is very persistent.

[jbarr5 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Blue by Danielle SteelHave read most of the authors works and enjoy the reads.Starts out with Ginny Carter and her assignments are months long where she's located in Africa helping legal and children and woman rights.The life helps her concentrate rather on others than herself. She arrives back in NYC after traveling for over 27 hours.We go back in time and learn about Ginny and her husband. She was a TV reporter and he was an anchorman. Around the Christmas holidays they and their young son were in a car crash.Her husband had been drinking and he was the one to drive home...the guys died. She ran away and became a social worker in far off places so she'd not have to deal with her guilt. She had let him drive them home...She is ready to jump into the river and end all her pain once and for all but she sees somebody in her side vision and approaches the shed door.She meets Blue Williams and he's utterly alone. She befriends him, feeds him, gives him her coat and puts him on the coach while she's in town, gets him back to school and a shelter to stay in while she's gone....Becks her sister is not only dealing with her own family and teens but an ailing Alzheimer father that she's caring for and he doesn't even know who she is some days.Their friendship grows as he runs from her but returns many times....amazing how she finds others to help her get justice.I like this book because it brings forward how to start proceedings for child abuse while at a private religious school as we've had at least one in a nearby town.It's amazing the adults are still being charged after so much time has gone by.I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).

[ebrahmstadt · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sweet novel focused on healing from trauma, and how connections with others facilitates that healing.