A TIME Best Book of April Winner of the 2025 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature 'Chancy is one of our most brilliant writers and storytellers.'--Edwidge Danticat 'Myriam J. A. Chancy is a masterful writer.'--Jos Olivarez From award-winning author Myriam J. A. Chancy comes an extraordinary and enduring story of two families--forever joined by country, and by long-held secrets--and two girls with a bond that refuses to be broken. In 1940s Port-au-Prince, Gertie and Sisi become fast childhood friends, despite being on opposite ends of the social and economic ladder. As young girls, they build their unlikely friendship--until a deathbed revelation ripples through their families and tears them apart. After Fran ois Duvalier's rule turns deadly in the 1950s, Sisi moves to Paris, while Gertie marries into a wealthy Dominican family. Across decades and continents, through personal success and failures, they are parted and reunited, slowly learning the truth of their singular