HCX Salon d’Ayiti Book Club | Hadriana in All My Dreams by René Depestre Hosted by Kaiama L. Glover
2026-04-15 - 2026-05-09 | Virtual
This April, 𝗐𝖾 𝗐𝗂𝗅𝗅 read the English translation of Hadriana in All My Dreams by René Depestre in conversation with the novel’s translator Kaiama L. Glover, prizewinning translator and professor of Black Studies and French at Yale University.
Professor Glover will lead three virtual sessions in April as well as a closing in-person meet-up and lunch on May 9 at Salon d’Ayiti hosted by Haiti Cultural Exchange and the Center for Fiction in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
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About Hadriana in All My Dreams by René Depestre
Winner of the 1988 Prix Renaudot, Hadriana dans tous mes rêves is widely considered René Depestre’s finest novel. Set during 1938 Carnival in the Haitian village of Jacmel, it follows Hadriana, a young French woman who collapses at the altar after drinking a mysterious potion, is transformed into a zombie, buried, revived by a sorcerer, and vanishes into legend. The story is narrated first by her adoring god-brother Patrick, then — in a hilarious corrective — by Hadriana herself, whose account exposes the hidden sensuality beneath her bourgeois community’s respectable surface.
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JOIN THE CONVERSATION WITH KAIAMA L. GLOVER
Discussion to be held in multi-part virtual sessions:
Virtual; meeting link shared after registration. Readers are welcome to join mid-way through the session if they get started late.
Session 1: April 15, 6-7pm ET
Foreword + Movement 1, Chapters 1-2
Session 2: April 22, 6-7pm ET
Movement 1, Chapters 3-4
Session 3: April 29, 6-7pm ET
Movement 2
In-person lunch meet-up for virtual session attendees:
Location will be shared closer to the date.
May 9, 1-3pm
Movement 3 + Epilogue
Special conversation and staged reading following the meet-up with Kaiama L. Glover, Edwidge Danticat, and guests: Salon d’Ayiti: A Living Tribute to René Depestre.
$10-$30 Suggested donation includes access to all sessions.
If you are in NY, you can purchase the book, Hadriana in All My Dreams with our partners over at the Center For Fiction. Learn more about visiting their bookstore, here »
RSVP on Eventbrite while availability lasts! »
