In Darkness - Hardcover

Nick Lake is the Editorial Director for fiction for HarperCollins Children's Books and is the author of The Secret Ministry of Frost and Blood Ninja. In Darkness, set in Haiti, is Nick's first book for adults and older teen readers. He first discovered Haitian culture as part of his Master's Degree in Linguistics and has since been fascinated by it. Nick lives near Oxford.

Shorty, 15, is in a Haitian hospital with a bullet in his arm when the walls fall down during an earthquake. As he waits for help, drinking blood to try to quench his thirst, he remembers how he got to the hospital and the haunting gang violence he witnessed in the slums: his beloved twin sister was taken; his father was chopped to pieces. His mother loved freedom-fighter Aristide, but his father did not. Shorty’s present-day narrative switches back and forth with an historical plotline set in the eighteenth century, when Touissant l’Ouverture, a former slave, led Haiti in the fight for freedom, calling for justice, not vengeance, in the struggle to emancipate the slaves. The constantly shifting narratives, large cast of characters, and cultural detail may overwhelm some readers, and the unspeakable brutality is not for the fainthearted. But older readers, especially those who have seen the devastating footage of Haiti’s recent earthquake, will want to read about the grim, contemporary drama and the inspiring history. Grades 10-12. --Hazel Rochman