LONGWOOD, FL-As a 10-year-old child living in Haiti, author Marie-Solange Benedict experienced firsthand the repressive 30-year dictatorship of the Duvalierist regime and lived with the fear of death for many years even after escaping the country. In Child of a Mountainous Land: Odyssey of a Haitian Refugee (paperback, 978-1-60477-127-5; hardcover, 978-1-60477-128-2), she chronicles the uprooting of a middle-class Haitian family from its home, as they escape from the events that conspired to dismantle a country and push more of its people into exile. This is also an immigrant's story of survival in a racist society and one woman's personal fight against the issues faced by blacks in the United States. In the end, at age 28, she finds the assurance that God's love transcends the barriers of culture and racism.
Says Benedict, "I hope my readers will understand that the history of Haiti is one notorious example of the price a people and a country has paid for its rejection of God. Readers should also see a parallel between the unethical behavior of Haitians in Haiti and that of government officials in the United States who support dictatorships in third-world countries. In telling my story, I also hope to challenge the individual reader to examine his or her own relationship with God and how it relates to personal ethical choices."
In the '60s and '70s, most Haitian professionals and trained workforce were either dead, in prison, or exiled. The Duvalierists were leading the country down a path of destruction. The country's spiraling destruction and Haitians' inability to live peacefully made Benedict realize the price rejecting God enacted on a people and their country. "Through reading the Bible in faith, I discovered GodŐs character, His sovereignty, and His incomparable ability to overcome the evil plots of mankind," Benedict says.
Xulon Press, a part of Salem Communications Corporation, is the world's largest Christian publisher, with more than 3,900 titles published to date. Retailers may order Child of a Mountainous Land through Ingram Book Company and/or Spring Arbor Book Distributors. Salem Communications is the country's leading Christian communications company with interests in radio, Internet, and magazine publishing.
|
2007