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Health & Fitness

Edwidge Danticat's "Claire of the Sea Light" Named as the 2014 Selection

The Wilmette Public Library proudly announces that Claire of the Sea Light by two-time National Book Award finalist Edwidge Danticat has been named the 2014 selection for the Library’s annual “One Book, Everybody Reads” program.  Ms. Danticat will speak about her book on Sunday, May 4, in Wilmette.

“One Book, Everybody Reads” is the Library’s community-wide reading and book discussion program, funded by the Friends of the Wilmette Public Library.   Local residents are encouraged to read the selected title and participate in various events that explore the book and its themes.

Named as one of Library Journal’s Top Ten Books of 2013, NPR’s Best Books of 2013, Publishers Weekly’s Best Fiction Books of 2013, and the Washington Post’s Notable Fiction of 2013, Claire of the Sea Light explores the roles of parent, child, neighbor, and friend as well as the themes of love, loss, and redemption. The stunning novel tells the story of 7-year-old Claire, a Haitian girl who disappears on the night her father gives her away in the hopes of giving his only child a better life.  Presented as a haunting and magical narrative of interwoven tales and lives, the individual stories all connect back to young Claire, her parents, and to the small fishing village where they live.

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Hailed by many as the literary voice of Haiti and Haitian Americans, Edwidge Danticat was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and moved to New York at the age of 12 to join her parents, who had emigrated when she was a young child. She published her first novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory, at the age of 25. Her second work earned her the distinction of being the youngest nominee ever named for a National Book Award.

Throughout her career, Ms. Danticat has explored the immigrant experience as well as the history and culture of Haiti and its people, and her works have received high acclaim and numerous awards. Prolific in her craft, Ms. Danticat has written plays, short fiction, novels, memoirs, essays, and books for young adults.  She has edited anthologies, worked in literary translation, written an autobiography, and co-produced documentary films. 

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Among Ms. Danticat’s many honors, she is the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, recipient of a MacArthur Fellow Genius Grant, a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist, winner of the Langston Hughes Medal, recipient of the Woman of Achievement Award from Barnard College, and one of the New York Times Magazine’s “30 Under 30” Creative People to Watch.

The Library’s “One Book, Everybody Reads” program, which began in 2006, is designed to create opportunities for shared enjoyment of the selected book, enhance each individual’s reading experience, and introduce readers to a book and/or author with whom they might not otherwise be familiar.  In an effort to make the title available to the entire community, the Library offers copies of the book in a variety of formats.

As in past years, the 2014 “One Book” program will take place in the spring, and   details about the various events will be available by late winter.  The series will culminate when Ms. Danticat discusses Claire of the Sea Light at 2 p.m. on May 4 at Wilmette Junior High School, 620 Locust Road, Wilmette.  Ticketing information for Ms. Danticat’s talk will be available closer to the date of the event.

Previous “One Book” programs have featured the following books and authors: Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (2013), State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (2012), Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (2011), Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (2010);, The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester (2009), Loving Frank by Nancy Horan (2008), A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind (2007), and Before You Know Kindness by Chris Bohjalian (2006). 

For more information about this spring’s “One Book, Everybody Reads” program, visit www.wilmettelibrary.info/onebook or call (847) 256-6930.                                      

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