The Garden of Broken Things by Francesca Momplaisir

The gripping story of generations of women—mothers and daughters of Haiti—and the devastating earthquake that endangers one family on the brink and wakes the ghosts of their shared past.

Genevieve, a single mother, flies to Port-au-Prince in 2010 with her teenage son, Miles. The trip is meant to be an education for Miles—a chance to learn about his family’s roots while coming to terms with his father’s departure—but it’s also an excuse for Genevieve to escape New York City, where her life is dominated by her failed marriage and the daily pressures of raising Black children in America.

For Genevieve, the journey is also a homecoming of sorts: An opportunity to visit the island she remembers from childhood, reconnect with her abrasive cousin, Ateya, and tend to her young, dejected niece, Ti’Louse. But when the country is rocked by a massive earthquake—decimating the city and putting their lives at risk—Genevieve and Ateya are hurried down separate paths to preserve all they hold dearest: Ateya searching the plantain gardens for her daughter; Genevieve racing across the island to find medical care for her wounded son.

Teetering on the fault line of history and one family’s collapse, and written with dazzling prose and an unflinching eye, The Garden of Broken Things is an astonishing novel about restoration and disaster, motherhood and the bonds that carry through generations.