The Farming Of Bones

The Farming of Bones, by Edwidge Danticat, was originally published in 1998. The novel’s setting is the Dominican Republic and the surplus of the book takes place in the late 1930s. Amabelle Désir, orphan and servant to Señora Valencia and her father, Papi, finds herself going above and beyond the call of duty as she delivers Señora Valencia’s twin babies. When the doctor arrives, he comments on Amabelle’s stellar abilities as a midwife, and suggests she get a job as a midwife in her native Haiti. Before Amabelle can truly let this possibility sink in, Señor Pico, the twins’ father, arrives and she has to return to her duties. While commiserating with some of the other workers, she finds out that Señor Pico has most likely killed a sugarcane worker on his way home that night.

Later that evening, Amabelle’s lover, Sebastien, a sugarcane worker himself, returns to reveal that her colleague was correct: his friend, Joël, was struck and killed by a car earlier that evening. Sebastien then departs to help his roommate, Yves, as well as Joël’s father, Kongo, care for the body.

With Joël’s death weighing on Amabelle’s mind, Amabelle receives another, far more urgent invitation to return to Haiti for work. The doctor warns Amabelle that danger is afoot and that she should leave not just to improve her status but to save her life. Amabelle, still unsure of the verity of the doctor’s claims, explains what happened to Sebastien and invites him to come with her. He consents and invites his spitfire sister, Mimi, as well.

That evening, as Amabelle is tending to an overextended Señora Valencia, a fight breaks out in the street below Señora Valencia’s home. The fight consists of Señor Pico and some military men on trucks threatening a group of Haitian cane workers carrying machetes. The military men verbally and physically abuse the cane workers, eventually driving off with them in the back of their trucks. Amabelle makes the final decision to flee after this incident, despite the fact that according to those present at the fight, Sebastien and Mimi have already been arrested for attempting to escape.

Amabelle ends up tracking down Yves and asking him to walk to Haiti with her, to see if there is any chance Sebastien and Mimi made it to the border. Through mountains and multiple attacks, Amabelle and Yves make it Haiti, although both are severely injured. Once they cross the border, they find out that they have just survived the systematic massacre of Haitians being carried out by the dictator of the Dominican Republic. In Haiti, they find Yves’ mother, as well as Sebastien and Mimi’s mother, but no sign of Sebastien and Mimi. Their mother finally reveals to Amabelle that many people have reported seeing them killed. Amabelle lives with Yves and his mother for the next few decades, forever searching for Sebastien and even risking a return to Señora Valencia’s in order to better remember the man she formerly knew.