When the Mapou Sings is a beautiful and poetic coming of age story about a young woman, Lucille, who is ready to do everything to find her lost best friend and realize her dream of opening a school. At sixteen-year-old, Lucille is sent far away from her family after denouncing an act of corruption. Guided by the Lwas and her dreams, she takes a servant post with a wealthy Haitian woman from society’s elite in Port-au-Prince. Despite a warning to avoid him, she falls in love with her employer’s son. But when their relationship is found out, she must leave again, this time banished to another city to work for a visiting American writer and academic conducting fieldwork in Haiti.

When the Mapou Sings focuses on Lucille’s first love, but also on her determinant meeting with Zora Neale Hurston. Inspired by the reel Lucille, a mysterious domestic who worked for Hurston during her stay in Haïti, Nadine Pinede created a magnificent historical novel written in prose about 1930s Haïti. I highly recommend the audiobook narrated by Marie-Francoise Theodore. She did an amazing job bringing life to Lucille’s adventures, but also perfectly conveyed the Haitian magical atmosphere.