Évelyne Trouillot’s latest novel takes place between Port-au-Prince and the United States. It is a quest for identity, a lesson in life, in humanity. A little gem, finely crafted.
What we like about “ The twins of rue Nicolas » (Project-Îles, 2023) is the expectation that this story leaves in us. We read with expectation. As always, Évelyne finds a narrative pattern that captivates. Which leaves the reader wanting more. You don’t close a breathtaking book. Not before he quenches his thirst and can finally breathe.
Two voices, one story
It is a novel in two voices: Lorette’s voice is in italics (slanted characters) and Claudette’s in Roman (straight characters). Clear, effective writing. The narration is unstoppable, with a romantic breath nourished by the author’s knowledge of the world. We are between the United States and Port-au-Prince. We walk the streets, the airports. While looking at our times. The past, the present but above all the future. With characters who always have their dreams elsewhere.
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« The first time I set foot on the floor of JFK Airport, I took the entire Bas Peu de Chose neighborhood with me. All the dreams of the neighbors came back to me. As if I were their spokesperson. The unwitting representative of their dreams. Dreams from before I was born, with their crutches but still standing. Brand new dreams that were looking for somewhere to slip into. The illusions of men and women who almost all wanted to leave, to go elsewhere ».
How to find the other in us?
Here, his novel allows the reader to reach, without any effort, abysmal depths or ask essential questions. Why are our dreams always elsewhere? How to find the other in us? Why is leaving always the ideal choice? They are two sisters. They are not submissive. Each of them sees the world differently. Claudette was born two hours before Lorette. Pure coincidence, they are not from the same mother. Lorette is the daughter of the wedding. Claudette was born in the south of Haiti. Society considers her as the daughter outside of marriage. Claudette’s grandparents died of illnesses that health services could not treat. His mother Julie died shortly after his birth.
Invited by her father to Port-au-Prince, during the embargo, to Rose-Marie, his wife. Claudette and Lorette meet in the family home in Bas-Peu de Chose. Suddenly, there is chemistry between them. Strangely, they look exactly the same. Sometimes people mistake Laurette for Claudette, and vice versa.
“Plus, I want to find myself doubled. Complete. Without losing a drop of madness that attaches me to you. I want all. Our excesses, my fears, our pleasures, your ecstasy, our needs. Year after year, I learned that without you, I wouldn’t be me.”
“The twins of rue Nicolas” (Project-Îles, 2023)
Love of words
But how will the destinies of these characters who grow up in the shadow of Rose Marie, an authoritarian woman terrified of others, unfold?
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Évelyne Trouillot loves words. She likes to arrange them, sketch them, look at them. It makes them flow like a life-giving spring. Here, writing serves to name things as they are. She knows how to paint souls. His two characters are sensitive beings who do not see the world without love, without tenderness. If the blind spot (Javier Cercas) is Haiti, identity, childhood, we do not close this novel without thinking of these declarations of love, these attachments, these touching testimonies which strike us. Reading this novel is listening to stories, it is delving into Haiti’s past. But above all it is learning to explore being. A dive into our intimate past and our relationship with others. A reflection on identity. When reading “The Twins of Rue Nicolas”, one can only feel empathy and emotion.
Source Le Nouvelliste Haiti