Haitian-born US-based author Elsie Augustave’s hauntingly impressive debut The Roving Tree has been steadily garnering rave reviews, including praise from Edwidge Danticat in The New York Times and Kirkus Reviews. The novel charts the story of Iris, a young Haitian girl adopted by a wealthy white American couple, and her struggle for a cultural identity while navigating two worlds. The Middlebury College and Howard University graduate and Fulbright Scholar talks to Irenosen Okojie about transatlantic adoption, Haiti’s intriguing history and the process of capturing complex characters.
Tell me about your writing journey so far.
The journey has been long and hopeful. I had no previous experience with the craft when I began writing fiction, but since I was determined to achieve my goal I learned it along the way. Years later, a friend of mine took the manuscript [of The Roving Tree] to Marie D. Brown who then recommended it to Open Lens, an imprint of Akashic Books. The Roving Tree was subsequently published in May 2013, and I am pleased to report that the reviews and comments have been encouraging.
What is it about the topic of transatlantic adoption that appeals to you?
After I made up my mind to write a novel, I thought about a story I had heard in Haiti about a young girl who had been adopted by a French couple. I began to imagine that girl’s new life and the issues she might encounter in a foreign land with a new family that looks nothing like her.
Haiti has a fascinating history. What makes it so conducive to rich storytelling?
Haitian history is indeed rich and intriguing. We come from a tradition where storytelling is vital since we inherited the culture of the West African griot. Before radio, television and internet became part of our lives people would sit around and tell stories. Haitians also enjoy telling stories through other artistic channels, such as paintings, music and dance. We may be economically poor, but we are rich in culture, art, and history.
The themes of race, class and cultural identity run through the novel. Why are these threads important in telling Iris’s story?
It was inevitable for me to address those themes because of the scope of the story, the time when it happens and the place where it takes place. The issue of race had to come up because cross-racial adoption during the early-60s in the United States naturally lends itself to that kind of discussion, given the nature of race relations at that time. I also wanted to explore the interaction between the social classes in Haiti. In spite of the ideal of social equality on which our country was founded, we are a socially divided society. As for the question of cultural identity in The Roving Tree, it is an inquiry into what happens in a racially divided world and how blacks of different nationalities relate to one another.
You really capture the dynamic of rootlessness well. Did this come from personal experience?
I feel strongly connected to the country of my birth and I am proud of our glorious history. Yet, even if my roots are deeply planted in Haiti, some of the branches of the tree have reached other skies. Iris’s rootlessness, on the other hand, stems from the fact that her roots are not deep enough, even if her umbilical cord is buried in Haiti.
Which fictional character would you love to write a prequel or sequel for?
I have often wondered how Berthe’s life will end. She is the daughter of the memorable and scandalous Emma Bovary and her husband Charles Bovary, who epitomises the mediocrity of a bourgeois lifestyle. The first time I read the novel in college, I found myself imagining Berthe’s life at the cotton mill. What would be her thoughts if she found out that it was because of her parents’ wrecked lifestyle that she had to live in poverty? Is she going to spend the rest of her life working at the cotton mill or will her fate change?
Which authors made you want to tell stories and why?
My interest in the oral tradition of storytelling began in Haiti at an early age when I used to spend summer vacations with relatives in rural Haiti. I fondly remember the evenings when the elders told stories, but it was after reading Jacques Roumain’s Masters of the Dew that I started to fantasise about writing fiction. The desire was later reinforced when I discovered Claude McKay’s Banana Bottom. Aside from those two books, there is a long list of writers from across the globe whose works fuelled my decision to write.
What’s the best writing advice you’ve been given?
The best advice that I like to share is that to become a good writer one needs to continuously engage in re-writing. The first draft is only a foundation for the writer to work toward a final draft.