CÉCÉ

A young woman strives to get ahead in chaotic modern Haiti.

Cécé, the narrator of this stark, unflinching novel from veteran novelist Prophète, opens her story nine months after the death of her grandmother. That event represents not just the loss of a loved one but the disruption of her entire social order: Her mother, an addict, died when she was 2, and her only remaining relative is an alcoholic uncle. That leaves her at the mercy of the gangs in her town, the Cité of Divine Power, as she struggles to make ends meet through prostitution and selling possessions. With some extra money, she finds her way online, inventing a persona, Cécé la Flamme, that’s critical of the slums and attracts thousands of followers. That influence gets the attention of area gang leaders and profiteers, who are determined to exploit her social media reach. The novel can be read as a parable about the perils of influencer culture, as Cécé inevitably falls afoul of the people who pay her to support them, or as those supporters suddenly vanish. But it’s most bracing as a portrait of the consequences of a young woman’s relentless abuse, in the tradition of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets or The Bluest Eye. Prophète’s prose captures Cécé’s desensitization, while still rich in observational detail: The city is filled with the sound of “shots fired in broad daylight to frighten a shopkeeper who didn’t want to pay the fee to the gang of the moment that was extorting him, radios on full volume, each broadcasting a different program, neighbors arguing, screams of children getting beaten,” and so on. The violence is often brutal—one gang leader earns the nickname Cannibal 2.0—but Prophète is never merely exploitative. The brutality is woven around Cécé’s character, compelling the reader to witness her slow erosion.

A bleak, clear-eyed vision of a woman, and society, in collapse.