My Mother’s House

Momplaisir’s provocative debut unearths the secrets and dark desires of a Haitian immigrant family man living in an anthropomorphic house in Queens, N.Y. In 1960s Port-au-Prince, 24-year-old brothel bouncer Lucien Louverture marries 15-year-old Marie-Ange Calvert after he protects her during an attempted coup. They quickly have three daughters, and he moves them all to the U.S. when the girls are still babies. The house he buys possesses humanlike desires and memory (“The House had been hopeful that [Lucien] would bring warmth and harmony to smoke out like burned sage the evil and sadness that had been left behind by its previous gangster head of household”). Initially, the house, which calls itself La Kay, is a hub of activity, with Marie-Ange cooking for the neighborhood’s diverse immigrant community, but La Kay grows horrified by Lucien’s habits of spying on his wife and daughters. After Marie-Ange dies at 40, La Kay determines to kill Lucien by setting itself on fire. Lucien escapes the inferno, but is desperate to rescue his “girls.” The neighbors, knowing his grown daughters have moved out, assume he’s senile, but gradually the reader—and La Kay—discover the harrowing details of Lucien’s secret basement room where he traps girls and women. Momplaisir’s arresting take on the abuse of male power will long haunt the reader. Agent: Victoria Sanders, Victoria Sanders & Assoc. (May)