Madame Dread

Kathie Klarreich
September 2005     ISBN: 1560257806

Kathie Klarreich takes us on an enthralling, often deeply personal voyage through Haitian society, culture, religion and politics. Risking life and limb, being mistaken for a CIA agent, losing the man she loved to an assassin's bullet--through all this, Kathie Klarreich soldiered on in her tenacious reporting. Her unsparing eye led major news organizations like the New York Times, NBC, CNN, PBS, Time and NPR to rely on her expertise.

Madame Dread interweaves shattering political events with a riveting personal narrative about the Haitian musician she eventually marries and has a child with, who turns out to be as complicated and fascinating as the social upheavals she covered.

"Kathie Klarreich takes us on an incredible voyage not only through Haitian society, culture, religion, and politics, but also into the depths of the country's heart and soul. However the most poignant and moving journey of all is through her own magnificent heart, which through its ability to survive, rebound, and thrive, leaves its imprints on every page of this book and indeed every corner of the reader's soul."
—Edwidge Danticat

"Madame Dread: A Tale of Love, Vodou, and Civil Strife in Haiti by Kathie Klarreich (Nation Books) is a memoir filled with humor, personality and cultural richness... She chronicles with deep affection and understanding the troubles in Haiti before, during and after the rise of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and does so in the great humanistic, border-breaking tradition of Isak Dinesen and Graham Greene. Her portrait of the complicated Aristide is precise and dead-on. Despite the "Vodou" in the subtitle, this book transcends the usual foreign tropes about Haiti's evil and exoticism and plunges through to our common humanity."
-Amy Wilentz, The Los Angeles Times

"Madame Dread covers the period from the end of the 1980s through the end of the 1990s. It is an exceptional testimony of the serious political events which marked this historic period of Haitian history; it is also a love story written with a high level emotion in a manner that has given back prestige to this literary style of writing. Mostly, it is a fascinating communion with the Haitian culture, the Haitian people, and the Haitian Creole language. Kathie Klarreich's sincerity, eloquence and passion for this country and for its culture – so discredited by some – vibrates intensely in these unforgettable 352 pages that I recommend intensely. If there is a book this year on Haiti that should read, this is it."
—Haitian Times

Kathie Klarreich now lives in Florida. She has reported on Haiti for The Christian Science Monitor, the San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, All Things Considered, U.S. News & World Report and the New York Times, as well as NBC, CNN and ABC.