Dèy
Edwidge Danticat is a writer we’d follow anywhere, and Dèy takes its title from the Haitian Kreyòl word for mourning. Magnolia, a Haitian American real estate agent in Miami, survives a mass shooting at a mall and keeps it from everyone. From there the novel turns toward her daughter, her parents, and the family still in Haiti. The National Book Foundation calls it a meditation on mourning, immigration, gentrification, and diasporic identity. At 256 pages, this looks like one to read slowly.
Publisher’s description at Penguin Random House. Finalist status from the National Book Foundation.
Danticat has been a National Book Award finalist before, for Krik? Krak! and Brother, I’m Dying. Dèy is a 2026 finalist for Fiction. Winners are announced November 18.
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