The rainy season - Amy Wilentz

Through a series of personal journeys, interwoven with scenes from the country's past, Amy Wilentz documents her arrival in Haiti in 1986, days before the ousting of Haiti's President for Life, Jean-Claude Duvalier, and shows how the hope of change turned to disappointment when liberation led to chaos and stagnation. In Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, Wilentz leads the reader through the streets, bustling by day, and by night filled with gunfire and burning tyres. She explores the countryside where young soldiers control road-blocks and farmers struggle to survive, and where belief in voodoo, the peasants' religion, is as strong as ever.;Wilentz offers portraits of today's Haitians - Father Aristide the rebel priest and spiritual force behind the opposition, the various military-backed leaders, the wild children who roam the streets, the State Department men, the Christian missionaries, and the international press corps who jet in for each coup.;Amy Wilentz has written articles on Haiti for "The Village Voice", "The Nation", "Grand Street" and "Newsday".