"A translation from the Haitian Kreyol of the first major novel in Haiti's national vernacular. Written in an unconventional style with a number of voices and a combination of myth, poetry, allegory, magical realism, and social realism, Franketienne's Dezafi tells the tale of a plantation that is run and worked by zombies for the financial benefit of the living owner. With the walking dead and bloody cockfights ('dezafi') as cultural metaphors for Haitian existence, Dezafi is ultimately an allegory of political and social liberation"--