Excerpt from What Storm, What Thunder by Myriam J. A. Chancy, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

A little corner of peace is all they want.

And I give it to them.

Like a sponge, I absorb and grow fat and round. The weight of their words like leaves imprinted into my flesh, hanging heavy from my frail bones, rooting myself to the ground because it is the only thing that I can be sure of, then, now. Who's to say that the red of the earth of this island isn't drawn from the blood of women like me, sitting in the markets, pooling?

A little corner of peace is all that is wanted.

Now I know how to give it to them. I do so freely: I listen.

Little did I know that my work was only beginning.

Excerpted from What Storm, What Thunder by Myriam J Chancy . Copyright © 2021 by Myriam J Chancy . Excerpted by permission of Tin House Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.