Mouths Don't Speak

"Ulysse is an intense writer, bringing her readers into the emotions of her characters...This a powerful story."
--Me, You, and Books

"With grace and elegance, Katia D. Ulysse explores the implications of privilege and inaction, of inadequacy and otherness, of trauma and emotional isolation, and the pervasive ways that turmoil and loss corrode the lives of the individuals involved. Mouths Don’t Speak is a gem in the way it tackles difficult subjects and questions without answers."
--M.J. Fièvre, author of A Sky the Color of Chaos

"Katia D. Ulysse is a writer of great power and passion, now delivering her most potent work to date. Mouths Don’t Speak is a story of annihilation and redemption--of a more harrowing journey back from the abyss than anyone who has not read it could possibly imagine. There are those who believe that a book can be a repozwa, in which a spirit may dwell, as in a grotto, tree, or spring. If that is true, then the spirit living in this book must be a very great one."
--Madison Smartt Bell, author of Behind the Moon

"With the force of an earthquake and with unrelenting prose, Katia D. Ulysse explores the pain of long-buried secrets, shakes them loose from their foundations, and deftly probes the lives of the families crippled by their aftermath."
--Amina Gautier, author of The Loss of All Lost Things

"This beautiful book is for anyone who carries the pain of loss, the heartbreak of guilt, the tremor of horrors lived, and the knowledge that we all love in flawed ways. Consider it required reading for humans, and be brought back to life."
--Anjanette Delgado, author of The Clairvoyant of Calle Ocho

"Gripping and heartbreaking, Mouths Don’t Speak is an intricate tapestry of familial betrayals, misunderstandings, forgiveness, and love; a testament to the power of new beginnings even after unspeakable tragedies. The pages had me holding my breath!"
--Lauren Francis-Sharma, author of 'Til the Well Runs Dry

No one was prepared for the massive earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010, taking over a quarter-million lives, and leaving millions more homeless. Three thousand miles away, Jacqueline Florestant mourns the presumed death of her parents, while her husband, a former US Marine and combat veteran, cares for their three-year-old daughter as he fights his own battles with acute PTSD.

Horrified and guilt-ridden, Jacqueline returns to Haiti in search of the proverbial "closure." Unfortunately, the Haiti she left as a child twenty-five years earlier has disappeared. Her quest turns into a tornado of deception, desperation, and more death. So Jacqueline holds tightly to her daughter--the only one who must not die.