SOURCE: "A Haitian Fantasy and Exile," in Newsday, March 30, 1995, pp. B2, B25.

In the following favorable review of Krik? Krak!, Eder describes some of Danticat's stories as "pure beguiling transformation."

"Beyond the mountains there are mountains" goes one of the Haitian proverbs that work their tutelary spirit through Edwidge Danticat's stories. The Creole sayings of that misfortunate island keep it in one particular sense from being utterly bereft. For Haitians to hurl those six laconic words at the harshness that forbids them passage is to acknowledge it and lift it at the same time. Haiti's proverbs, like Chekhov's plays, light up what rises when men and women are borne down.

So do the best of these pieces by a young and beautifully voiced Haitian-American writer. When Guy falls to his death from the balloon he has stolen, or Celiane jumps after the dead baby she has hurled from...