What Storm, What Thunder is a novel by the Haitian Canadian/American author Myriam J. A. Chancy which portrays the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti narrated through ten different points of view. The novel is non-linear, jumping back and forth in time from before the earthquake, to the day of, and years afterward.
Jonas is a young boy who lives with his parents, Sara and Olivier, and two sisters. In the earthquake, he and his sisters get trapped under collapsed houses. He survives but his sisters do not. Due to his injuries, Jonas must have his leg amputated. Olivier cannot face Jonas’s imminent death and runs away; Olivier leaves Sara to care for Jonas alone as he dies. Sara and Olivier deal with the immense loss of their three children. Consumed by his grief and shame, Olivier ends up committing suicide. Sara is lost in her grief until she is slowly drawn out again by a loving community around her.
Sonia is a sex worker who works in a luxury hotel above the city of Port-au-Prince. She and her companion Dieudonné escape the hotel before it collapses around them. Dieudonné’s friend, Leopold, also works at the hotel. He gets trapped in an elevator and must survive without food and water for three days before he is rescued. The experience changes him; Leopold quits drug trafficking and becomes a dedicated father.
Sonia’s siblings Taffia and Paul lose their house and all their possessions in the earthquake. They move into the camps for internally displaced people where conditions are squalid and there are increasing levels of violence. Paul joins one of the roving groups of young men that pop up in the camps. Taffia is threatened and later attacked by a former schoolmate. The violence and shame surrounding the sexual assault impact her more than the earthquake itself; she eventually bears a child as a result of the rape. Their brother Didier wants to be a musician but, to make ends meet, works as a taxi driver in the U.S. He struggles with the loneliness and culture shock of being an immigrant. Both Didier and Anne experience the earthquake from outside of Haiti; from far away they worry about their loved ones. Anne returns to Haiti to help with the relief efforts. There she sees the immense need and how ineffective most international aid efforts are to address the core problems the country is facing.
Anne’s grandmother survived the earthquake but her father did not. Richard is a Haitian business executive living in France. He intentionally distances himself from his mother, Ma Lou, and daughter Anne. Back in Haiti after years away, Richard drowns in a wave caused by the earthquake. Ma Lou is a market woman. Beginning and ending the novel, she serves as the witness for everyone’s stories. Ma Lou is insightful and resilient, and she helps many characters on their path to healing.
The earthquake brings out the best and worst in people. Chancy portrays Haitian society in all of its complexity, showcasing the beauty and pain of a country in a world that is in a rush to move on. Her novel challenges readers to sit with the human stories behind a national tragedy and examine how the international community responds to moments of crisis.
