Peacekeeping

The daring second novel by the National Book Award-nominated author of Fieldwork.Mischa Berlinski’s first novel Fieldwork was published to rave reviews―Hilary Mantel called it “a quirky often brilliant debut” and Stephen King said it was “a story that cooks like a mother”―and it was a finalist for the National Book Award. Now Berlinski returns with Peacekeeping an equally enthralling story of love politics and death in the world’s most intriguing country: Haiti.When Terry White a former deputy sheriff and a failed politician goes broke in the 2007–2008 financial crisis he takes a job working for the UN helping to train the Haitian police. He’s sent to the remote town of Jérémie where there are more coffin makers than restaurants more donkeys than cars and the dirt roads all slope down sooner or later to the postcard sea. Terry is swept up in the town’s complex politics when he befriends an earnest reforming American-educated judge. Soon he convinces the judge to oppose the corrupt but charismatic Sénateur Maxim Bayard in an upcoming election. But when Terry falls in love with the judge’s wife the electoral drama threatens to become a disaster.Tense atmospheric tightly plotted and surprisingly funny Peacekeeping confirms Berlinski’s gifts as a storyteller. Like Fieldwork it explores a part of the world that is as fascinating as it is misunderstood―and takes us into the depths of the human soul where the thirst for power and the need for love can overrun judgment and morality.