How do you sell books about a cataclysm that left 300,000 dead and one million people homeless? One year after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, religion publishers with books on the quake and its aftermath are highlighting the stories of hope, resilience and faith that emerged from the rubble. The books call readers to compassion and action for the poor made even poorer by the events of Jan. 12, 2010, while reminding them that suffering unites us all.
Zondervan has landed major national media for Unshaken: Rising From the Ruins of Haiti's Hotel Montana by Dan Woolley with Jennifer Schuchmann (Zondervan, Jan.). The book tells parallel stories, of Woolley’s three days trapped in the rubble of a Port au Prince Hotel and of his wife's torment with not knowing his fate. An interactive strategies director of Compassion International, Woolley has appeared on Fox News and the History Channel and was interviewed by CNN's Anderson Cooper.
Woolley spoke to RBL from the roof of the Hotel Montana on the anniversary of the quake and said he hopes the book will act as a bridge between the enormous scale of the disaster and individual suffering. "When your world crashes down around you, what is that like and what do you do with it?" he said. "I think we are all on a journey, and I hope people can learn from mine."
The media attention "was more than I dreamed," said Sandy Vander Zicht, Zondervan's associate publisher and executive editor. She credits the book's success to publicity efforts and even more to its message. "It is more than a story of an earthquake. It is a story of a marriage renewed, about a faith renewed.”
Of After Shock: Searching for Honest Faith When Your World Is Shaken (InterVarsity Press, Feb.) author Kent Annan told RBL, "This is a book about a specific thing in Haiti, but I hope it can be meaningful to people even if they have never set foot in Haiti or made a donation to a cause there," He added, "Suffering is more extreme in Haiti, but it is a part of all of our lives.”
IVP emphasized Annan's credentials as co-director of the non-profit Haiti Partners, and Adrianna Wright, online publicity manager, said that has helped land coverage in the religion blogs of both The Washington Post and CNN, two outlets the house has not cracked before. Said Wright, "Kent’s is a very humble, respectful posture and I think that is very winsome."
This past fall Orbis also released a book on the tragedy: Hidden in the Rubble: A Haitian Pilgrimage to Compassion and Resurrection by Gerard Thomas Straub (Orbis, Sept. 2010) recounts a photographer's journey into one of Haiti's poorest slums both before and after the earthquake.
