THE DEW BREAKER

Is redemption possible Danticat asks in this intricately threaded collection of stories? More specifically, is it possible for the victims, family, and title character, a Haitian immigrant barber from Brooklyn, who 25 years earlier tortured and killed, as one of Haiti's secret police, the hated Tonton Macoute? All still live, but only with stunted half-lives, like dry bones rattling in nightmare graveyards. While Danticat's haunting imagery and spare prose give them flesh, Robin Miles's flawless narration breathes life into them. To an acute sense of timing and intensity she adds delicately honed accents--a hint of Haitian Creole or broad Brooklyn street slang. The package works perfectly, making all the more painful the realization that, no, there may not be any redemption after lives so damaged. P.E.F. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 04]