Cécé

by Emmelie Prophète, Aidan Rooney (Translator)

Overview

“The best book on Haiti in a very long time . . . powerful, spot on, likely the best written.” —Dany Laferrière
 
An astonishing novel of raw beauty about gang life, sex work, and social media in Haiti

Cécé La Flamme, as she’s known by her loyal Facebook friends, captures photographs of still bodies. Figures scorched and bruised, left to the rubble of the Cité of Divine Power. When she posts an image of a corpse, Cécé’s followers skyrocket. “Nothing got more attention than a good corpse that was nice and warm or already rotting.” Just beside visions of rot and neglect, she posts pictures of her toes, gullies crisscrossing the cité, and her own lips painted blue. With every image, Cécé seeks control and wants to create a frank, intimate record of the terror in her cité.
 
Cécé’s world begins and ends with the cité – a slum peopled by gangs, yelping kids, grandmothers, junkies, and preachers. The very gate that encloses the cité was constructed by militant gang members. First boss Freddy, then Joël, then Jules César rule the gang that holds the cité in a chokehold. Sharp, sincere, and desperate, Cécé cleaves life for herself out of social media, sex work, and attempts at friendship with other women. When an American journalist offers to buy the rights to Cécé’s photographs, she demands double the cash. When an abusive former client dies, she wears hot pink to his funeral. Emmelie Prophète’s novel is fierce, devastating, and suggestive – a record of a woman clawing back control.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781962770415
Publisher:	New York Review Books
Publication date:	09/23/2025
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 6.60(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Emmelie Prophète (b. 1971, Port-au-Prince, Haiti) is the author of two poetry collections and six novels, the first of which, Les Testaments de Solitude, won the Grand Prix littéraire de l’Association des écrivains de langue française. Prophète’s most recent novel, Les Villages de Dieu, was awarded the Prix FetKann Maryse Condé, a prize that recognizes literature promoting human dignity from the largely postcolonial global South. Prophète is the former director of the National Library of Haiti, and is now a cultural curator in Port-au-Prince.

Aidan Rooney (b. 1965, Monaghan, Ireland) is a teacher at Thayer Academy in Massachusetts, USA. Rooney’s poetry collections include Go There, Tightrope, and Day Release. His translations from Haitian Kreyòl and French can be read elsewhere at AGNI, Asymptote, Carte Blanche, Tanbou, as well as in print in New American Writing #39. His honors include the Sunday Tribune / Hennessy Cognac Award for New Irish Poetry and the Daniel Varoujan Award from the New England Poetry Club. He lives in Hingham, Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

"Prophète brings a deep sympathy and understanding to the lives of ordinary Haitians. This is a small book physically and only 212 pages, but it created a whole world that I will remember for a long time." —Taylor McNeil, Tufts Now

"Through her online presence, Cécé wields power . . . Prophète’s book intersperses actual events into the plot and highlights calamitous real-life situations . . . poignant and powerful." —Erica Swenson Danowitz, Library Journal, starred review

"The problem within Cécé is that violence begins anew each day; although the violence of the past is far gone, in each new present, there is more devastation . . . within Cécé, the entire Cité of Divine Power rages." —Ria Dhull, Spectrum Culture

“A subtly thought-provoking novel of singular force . . . Prophète eschews easy answers, and Cécé stayed on my mind long after I closed the book.” —Victoria Mangan, Literary Review

"Prophète’s achievement is to make the real and the virtual sides of Célia’s life equally vivid. This is a voice-driven novel, and Aidan Rooney’s terrific translation from the French conveys the heroine’s profound despair and snarky resilience. Célia is opinionated, vulnerable, mordantly funny and often overwhelmed . . . Status updates are her expressions of defiance and determination. For Célia, to post is to be." —Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal

"Cécé is a slim book, around 200 pages, small enough to fit in your coat pocket. Yet, it's a gripping story of how brutality can be commodified in our desensitised social-media age . . . 'There are women like Cécé here,' [Emmelie tells The Telegraph], 'audacious, full of desire to live and to change things. They give me hope. There is hope. There’s a reason I haven’t left all these years. Haiti inspires me. I owe a lot to this country.'” —Eleanor Halls, interview of Emmelie Prophète, The Telegraph

"The Cité of Divine Power is brought to life with skill. Its streets blaze and vibrate, its makeshift homes are shadowy with dismay . . . Cécé is a cool, cleareyed narrator, who takes pains not to sensationalize. Sometimes her restraint makes the reader feel impertinent for drawing conclusions at all. There is always the sense that Cécé could put it better herself . . . unsparing observation is characteristic of this brave novel—a book that marvels at people who feel entitled to their tears." —Susie Boyt, The New York Times

"Cécé is a modern take on an old story, survival by any means amid poverty and violence. Its portrait of both its central character and its setting is vivid and convincing . . . for [Cécé], existence itself is a victory." —Grant Rintoul, 1streading's Blog

"Cécé’s story is about resilience and adaptation . . . In many ways, Cécé reflects, the Cité is a microcosm of the world, with its brutal power structures, ruthlessness, and breakdown of the law . . . In the face of a reality that resembles “quicksand,” she advocates for a defiant solipsism . . . Aidan Rooney’s translation is lively and vibrant . . . brimming with visceral detail." —Benoit Landon, Words Without Borders

"Cécé is irresistible as the Boswell of the Cité and its residents: 'The unhinged (all too plentiful), the drunks, the junkies, people crippled by the last earthquake, the blind, the departed, the grieving.' Yet amid the district’s desperation, she reflects on how she 'couldn’t help thinking about the generosity that resisted the incredible violence, poverty and indifference.' Her arresting and lyrical chronicle amounts to an astonishing and deeply human story of resilience. It’s unforgettable." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Cécé, the narrator of this stark, unflinching novel from veteran novelist Prophète, opens her story nine months after the death of her grandmother. That event represents not just the loss of a loved one but the disruption of her entire social order: Her mother, an addict, died when she was 2, and her only remaining relative is an alcoholic uncle. That leaves her at the mercy of the gangs in her town . . . The novel can be read as a parable about the perils of influencer culture . . . But it’s most bracing as a portrait of the consequences of a young woman’s relentless abuse, in the tradition of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets or The Bluest Eye." — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Cécé vividly depicts the slums of contemporary Haiti via a very online young sex worker who lives her best life on Facebook. A little gem of a book." —Zadie Smith, The Guardian

"Immersed in the atmosphere and people of a Haitian cité, Prophète’s titular protagonist attempts to claw a life for herself out of the hands of gangs, junkies, grandmothers, and preachers. With her morbid internet following on one side and the pressures of sex work on the other, Cécé is an imperfect and deeply human testament to female resiliency." —Sam L. Spratford, The Millions

"Cécé feels like the arrival of a bold new talent, and its heroine’s voice, amplified by Aidan Rooney’s sparkling translation, is fresh and full of passionate energy as it rips open a whole new view of Haiti’s tormented earth." —Madison Smartt Bell

"Emmelie Prophète creates an intricate, honest, and achingly beautiful rendering of Port-au-Prince from the point of view of a bright young woman archiving it all. With stunning prose, Prophète constructs a fully realized world with its terrors and its tenderest people. This is a gift of a book." —Leila Mottley

“The best book on Haiti in a very long time ... powerful, spot on, likely the best written. This splendid writer's talent grabs us by the throat from the start, tightens the grip with each chapter, relaxes later on, then grips us again at the end, leaving us speechless.” —Dany Laferrière

“Emmelie Prophète renders the lives of others, particularly women, in tight prose and sharp narration.” —Yves Chemla, Le National

“This audacious novelist invests her heroine with glory as she narrates on the social networks the lives of women from the cité. Totally believable, an indelible voice.” —Valérie Marin La Meslée, Le Point

“A powerful, breathtaking novel with a diverse cast of ordinary people, this book tattoos onto our memory.” —Ricot Marc Sony, Le Nouvelliste

“Emmelie Prophète's fifth novel is immediately gripping. The writing borrows its descriptive immediacy from journalism and the characters confront the day to day grind of existence. A compelling read.” —Anne Bocandé, Jeune Afrique

“An extraordinary novel. The female characters are striking in their radiance.” —Michel Désautels, Désautels le Dimanche

From the Publisher