Translated by Amy B. Reid, Rosa the Alligator (Liverpool University Press, 2025) is the English-language version of Marie-Célie Agnant’s novel Un alligator nommé Rosa (2007) — a novel that seeks accountability for atrocities committed in Papa Doc [Duvalier]’s name. Based on first-person and archival accounts of the violence of Papa Doc’s death squads, Rosa the Alligator “gives voice to the trauma of the children who survived and grapple still with the weight of their memories” and “drives home the ethical choices individuals face as they confront crimes against humanity and their duty to memory.” [You may purchase directly from the LUP website for 20% off RRP.]
Description: Rosa the Alligator (Un alligator nommé Rosa, 2007) is a powerful exploration of the limits of truth, reconciliation, and justice for Haiti. Set in France, it focuses on two child victims of the Duvalier regime as they confront their traumatic history and their torturer, Rosa, a character based on the woman who led Papa Doc’s paramilitary death squads. The novel draws on the harrowing testimony of survivors but derives its force from Agnant’s ethical framework: she asks questions not only about the conflicting goals of justice, truth and reconciliation, but also about how one lives with the knowledge of crimes against humanity. Agnant’s characters face choices with implications far beyond the specifics of Haiti: What defines our humanity? Is justice possible without atonement? What if perpetrators refuse to acknowledge their guilt? Whose voices must be heard? What would you sacrifice in the name of justice?
This timely translation makes Agnant’s novel, the first to really seek accountability for the atrocities committed in Duvalier’s name, available in English. By voicing the buried stories of victims of Duvalier’s regime – without indulging the excuses of its supporters – Rosa the Alligator contributes to the on-going memory work of those grappling still with Haiti’s history.
Marie-Célie Agnant is an internationally recognized author and poet dedicated to telling the silenced stories of Haiti’s past. Her novels include The Book of Emma (2001) and A Knife in the Sky (2022).
Amy B. Reid is an award-winning translator of francophone fiction. Formerly professor of French and Gender Studies at New College of Florida, she now advocates for higher education with PEN America.
For more information, see https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9781835539675
Translated by Amy B. Reid, Rosa the Alligator (Liverpool University Press, 2025) is the English-language version of Marie-Célie Agnant’s novel Un alligator nommé Rosa (2007) — a novel that seeks accountability for atrocities committed in Papa Doc [Duvalier]’s name. Based on first-person and archival accounts of the violence of Papa Doc’s death squads, Rosa the Alligator “gives voice to the
