27094: Murray (news): Poujol-Oriol novel to be published (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: William Murray <dcunited4ever@yahoo.com>

  PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

Contact: Farhad Shirzad
info@ibexpub.com
(301) 718-8188

BETHESDA, MD (Jan. 3, 2006)---Haitian writer Paulette Poujol-Oriol?s
first novel to be translated into English, Vale of Tears (Le Passage),
will be available in February through Ibex Publishers, Inc., located
here.

Translated by Delores Schaeffer of Minnesota with help from Dr.
Claudine Michel, a professor of Black Studies at the University of
California at Santa Barbara, the book features an introduction by best-selling
author Edwidge Danticat and an afterword by Dr. Carrol Coates, a
translator and professor from the State University of New York at Binghamton
who helped bring Vale of Tears to market in the U.S.

  A work of fiction, most of Vale of Tears takes place in the Haitian
capital of Port-au-Prince, where the book?s protagonist, Coralie, is
trying to scrounge up enough money during the New Year holiday to pay her
rent. Part of the book is set in France, where Coralie spent part of
World War II.

Through 14 chapters that alternate between the present and past and
seem to correspond with Christ?s passion, the reader learns how
Coralie?s fortunes have changed steadily for the worse from adulthood to
middle age, beginning when her prosperous and loving husband passed away at
an early age, after he forgave her for cheating against her.

> From being a beautiful light-skinned woman who was nonetheless
treated horribly by her step-mother who stole her inheritance, Coralie
eventually finds herself being forced to sell herself and live apart from
her only child, as her fortunes begin to get worse. In the end, she finds
herself reduced to begging for money from family members and
acquaintances and washing clothes for prostitutes.

Other writings by Mrs. Poujol-Oriol include Le Creuset (The
Crucible), a novel, published in Port-au-Prince by Deschampes in 1980. The
title story from La Fleur Rouge (1992), a volume of short stories, won the
Parisian newspaper Le Monde?s 1988 prize for best short story in
francophone countries. Mrs. Poujol-Oriol published Le Passage in  French in
1996. She has also written a play, Trou-Soleil.

The ISBN for the book is: 1-58814-020-2. The tentative cover price
is $16.99. Pre-order copies will be available before then for those who
would like to receive the book early.

For more information about Ibex Publishers, which has published 160
books about Iran in English and Persian since 1979, please visit the
company?s website at www.ibexpub.com. The company?s phone number is (301)
718-8188 and its e-mail is info@ibexpub.com.

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