Haiti has inspired some powerful literature — both by Haitian writers and outsiders trying to understand the country.
The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat (1998). A novel about the 1937 Parsley Massacre, in which Dominican dictator Trujillo ordered the killing of Haitians living near the Dominican border. Danticat's prose is spare and devastating.
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat (1994). A coming-of-age story moving between rural Haiti and the Haitian community in New York. A gentle, important book about the strength and pain of Haitian women.
The Serpent and the Rainbow by Wade Davis (1985). An ethnobotanist's investigation of Vodou and zombification. Mixes solid research with the author's own adventures in Haiti; offers a real sense of Vodou's place in Haitian society. Treat the more sensational claims with some skepticism.
Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica by Zora Neale Hurston (1938). Hurston visited Haiti in the 1930s and observed Vodou ceremonies firsthand. An anthropological classic by one of America's great writers.
The Immaculate Invasion by Bob Shacochis (1999). A detailed account of the 1994 US military intervention that restored President Aristide. Illuminating about the complexities of humanitarian intervention.
Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola by Michele Wucker (1999). An examination of the fraught relationship between Haiti and the Dominican Republic — essential context for understanding both countries.
Haiti: The Tumultuous History by Philippe Girard (2010). A concise, clear-eyed political history from colonization to the present. Probably the best single-volume introduction to Haitian history.