“In Mouths Don’t Speak, Ulysse exposes the way tragedy follows class lines as well as family ones . . .” The Millions
“With lush descriptions and Creole-inflected dialogue, Katia D. Ulysse frankly and deftly writes about the nuances and class differences in Haiti. Mouth Don’t Speak explores how trauma touches us at home and abroad, wherever those places may be. This includes the experiences of the underserved kids Jacqueline teaches, war veterans, disaster victims, and children and their parents. Ulysse illustrates the complicated but unbreakable connections we have to family and home, and shows how privilege doesn’t necessarily keep you from tragedy.” –Shelf Awareness for Readers.
“This tenderly heartbreaking novel resonates.” – Caribbean Beat Magazine
“[Main Character] Jacqueline Florestant’s route is no easy one, but her story puts an individual face on the generalized social stigmas of Haiti.”
Ulysse gives readers a riveting story of a woman who is trying to make sense of a homescape that, if not wholly disappeared, is irrevocably altered.” -Buzzfeed
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“In this fascinating novel about Haitian life, Ulysse beautifully braids together the struggle for personal redemption with the struggle for dignity and human rights.” – Rain Taxi Review of Books
“A deftly scripted and compelling read from first page to last, Mouths Don’t Speak by Katia D. Ulysse is one of those rare and inherently riveting novels that will linger in the mind and memory long after the book itself has been finished and set back upon the shelf.”
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“A beautiful exploration of one woman’s quest to salvage a life that’s been destroyed by an unforeseeable natural disaster.”
—, Included in BitchReads: 25 Fiction Books You Must Read
“A young mother returns to Haiti after the massive earthquake to deal with the presumed death of her parents, while her husband remains home with their young daughter and struggles with combat PTSD. A powerful story of loss, trauma, and survival.”
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“Haitian-American author Katia D. Ulysse’s Mouths Don’t Speak is the powerful story of home and identity centered on a woman who returns to Haiti after a 25-year absence when an earthquake kills her parents.”
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Included in Baltimore Style Magazine’s
“With sheer artistry Katia D. Ulysse delivers a captivating narrative . . . Highly recommended.”
— (Guyana)
“Mouths Don’t Speak is a thrilling piece of literature . . . Ulysse paints a vivid geography lesson in her pages . . . Mouths Don’t Speak is a griping tale that covers the truths of many world issues.”
—Telegram News
“Powerful . . . As Ulysse explores grief, she moves beyond her protagonist to consider the murky motivations and emotions of other characters. This is a harrowing, thoughtful dive into the aftermath of national and personal tragedies filtered through diasporic life.”
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“A captivating portrait of a woman plagued with worry about family and homeland, this beautifully written novel recalls Toni Morrison’s Paradise.”
—Library Journal
“After the 2010 Haiti earthquake kills her parents, a woman returns to Haiti after leaving it as a child, 25 years ago. A powerful and engrossing story, this read cannot be missed.”
—, included in 35 Most Anticipated Fiction Books
“Katia D. Ulysse’s relentless prose delves into the class divide made blatant in the wake of the earthquake while probing the boundaries of the struggles of being a multinational family in a time of crisis.”
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“Ulysse punctuates . . . descriptions of the lush Florestant plantation with insightful observations about strained family dynamics. The ties that bind can also constrict us.”
—Booklist
“[A] powerful and heartbreaking novel that delves into the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake. From the start, the book captivates with vivid imagery and maintains a slow, enticing pace until the end.”
—bookishmystic
“A heartbreaking symphony of place, time, [and] relationships.”
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“In this dark and stirring domestic novel about family, loss, and mental health . . . Ulysse expertly captures the grief of expats witnessing a tragedy from afar, while also critiquing the globetrotting 24/7 news cycle that feeds off disaster porn.”
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“A beautiful reminder that the obstacles we face are not who we are; rather, they make us who we are.”
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“This novel is a candid exploration of what forces live in the house shared by grief and hope, and what richly unsettling terrain we uncover when we try to go home.”
—Paper Based Bookshop, included on the
“A phenomenal writer.”
—, author of Claire of the Sea Light
“Ulysse is an intense writer, bringing her readers into the emotions of her characters . . . This a powerful story.”
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“With grace and elegance, Katia D. Ulysse explores the implications of privilege and inaction, of inadequacy and otherness, of trauma and emotional isolation, and the pervasive ways that turmoil and loss corrode the lives of the individuals involved. Mouths Don’t Speak is a gem in the way it tackles difficult subjects and questions without answers.”
—M.J. Fièvre, author of A Sky the Color of Chaos
“Katia D. Ulysse is a writer of great power and passion, now delivering her most potent work to date. Mouths Don’t Speak is a story of annihilation and redemption—of a more harrowing journey back from the abyss than anyone who has not read it could possibly imagine. There are those who believe that a book can be a reposwa, in which a spirit may dwell, as in a grotto, tree, or spring. If that is true, then the spirit living in this book must be a very great one.
—Madison Smartt Bell, author of Behind the Moon
“Mouths Don’t Speak is an intimate look at the complexities of family separation and bonds, wisdom passed from one generation to the next, and haunting trauma. The 2010 earthquake that ravaged Haiti is seen through different lenses both on the island and across the water in the United States. In the fallout, Katia D. Ulysse weaves a beguiling tale of reverie and colonial imprint, new lives created out of painful pasts, and what it really means to call a place home.”
—Morowa Yejidé, author of Time of the Locust
“With the force of an earthquake and with unrelenting prose, Katia D. Ulysse explores the pain of long-buried secrets, shakes them loose from their foundations, and deftly probes the lives of the families crippled by their aftermath.”
—Amina Gautier, author of The Loss of All Lost Things
“This beautiful book is for anyone who carries the pain of loss, the heartbreak of guilt, the tremor of horrors lived, and the knowledge that we all love in flawed ways. Consider it required reading for humans, and be brought back to life.”
—Anjanette Delgado, author of The Clairvoyant of Calle Ocho
“Gripping and heartbreaking, Mouths Don’t Speak is an intricate tapestry of familial betrayals, misunderstandings, forgiveness, and love; a testament to the power of new beginnings even after unspeakable tragedies. The pages had me holding my breath!”
—Lauren Francis-Sharma, author of ’Til the Well Runs Dry
Katia D. Ulysse provides the rare opportunity to peer into the private lives of four secretive Haitian families. The interwoven narrative spans four decades—from 1970 through 2010—and drifts among various provinces in Haiti, the United States, churches, vodun temples, schools, strip clubs, and the grave. Ulysse introduces us to a childless Haitian American couple risking it all for a baby to call their own; a Florida-based predatory schoolteacher threatening students with deportation if they expose him; and the unforgettable Monsieur Boursicault, whose chain of funeral parlors makes him the wealthiest man in Haiti. This daring work of fiction is a departure from the standard narrative of political unrest on the island. Ulysse’s characters are everyday people whose hopes for distant success are constantly challenged—but never totally swayed—by the hard realities accompanying the immigrant’s journey.
To celebrate the release of , edited by Edwidge Danticat, we asked contributors from both of our Haiti Noir volumes to participate in an exquisite-corpse style story—a serial story in which each participant builds off of what the previous participants have written—to create an original piece of fiction with a decidedly dark tone. Check out the written by contributor Katia D. Ulysse.
Read a letter from Katia D. Ulysse to her teen self at .
Check out this interview between Katia D. Ulysse and and editor at .
Read an excerpt from Drifting at .
Listen to a radio appearance by Katia D. Ulysse at (WLRM FM, South Florida).
Read a story by Katia D. Ulysse about a Haitian grandmother’s home at the Miami Herald.
Check out a feature on Katia D. Ulysse at the .
Read Katia D. Ulysse’s special tribute to David Bowie.
Read Katia D. Ulysse’s call for a new narrative of Haiti at the Children’s Book Council Diversity blog.