The following brief review describes Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory as a graceful first novel outlining the coming-of-age story of Sophie, the novel's protagonist and narrator, in a world where traditions clash and the beauty of Haiti is inexorably mixed with the burden of sexual trauma, mental brutality, and political terror.

A distinctive new voice with a sensitive insight into Haitian culture distinguishes this graceful debut novel about a young girl's coming-of-age under difficult circumstances. "I come from a place where breath, eyes and memory are one, a place where you carry your past like the hair on your head," says narrator Sophie Caco, ruminating on the chains of duty and love that bind the courageous women in her family. The burden of being a woman in Haiti, where purity and chastity are a matter of family honor, and where "nightmares are passed on through generations like heirlooms...