It’s spring and weddings abound.  Everyone I know has at least three wedding themed Pinterest boards, and my roommate just bought a Texan bridal magazine with more pages than War and Peace.  In a world where white lace and big color themes have become commonplace, Alvarez brings us a fresh, touching and uplifting perspective on marriage in her memoir A Wedding in Haiti.

About the book

Julia Alvarez has been called “a one-woman cultural collision” by the Los Angeles Times Book Review, and that has never been truer than in this story about three of her most personal relationships—with her parents, with her husband, and with a young Haitian boy known as Piti. A teenager when Julia and her husband, Bill, first met him in 2001, Piti crossed the border into the Dominican Republic to find work. Julia, impressed by his courage, charmed by his smile, has over the years come to think of him as a son, even promising to be at his wedding someday. When Piti calls in 2009, Julia’s promise is tested.
To Alvarez, much admired for her ability to lead readers deep inside her native Dominican culture, “Haiti is like a sister I’ve never gotten to know.” And so we follow her across the border into what was once the richest of all the French colonies and now teeters on the edge of the abyss—first for the celebration of a wedding and a year later to find Piti’s loved ones in the devastation of the earthquake. As in all of Alvarez’s books, a strong message is packed inside an intimate, beguiling story, this time about the nature of poverty and of wealth, of human love and of human frailty, of history and of the way we live now.

Praise for Julia Alvarez’s A Wedding in Haiti 

“An unlikely friendship between two people, two families, and two countries shines at the center of A Wedding in Haiti. We the readers are privileged to witness it and become a part of this journey.” –Edwidge Danticat, author of Brother, I’m Dying

“A heartfelt experience of Haiti.” —Madison Smartt Bell, author of All Souls’ Rising 

 “Warm, funny and compassionate.” –Kirkus Reviews

“Alvarez’s unaffected prose and her warm and caring voice make this intimate introduction to a troubled country one many readers will savor.” –Booklist