Quiet Dawn (Duke University Press) by Jean-Claude Fignolé, translated from French by Kaiama L Glover and Laurent Dubois, now appears for the first time in English since its original 1990 publication. Charting Haiti’s unprecedented history-making journey from French colony to independent black republic, Fignolé’s expansive storyline encompasses Haitian life at the turn of the 18th century to the late 20th century. A Spiralist novel, i.e. one that eschews linear storytelling in order to challenge conventional notions of plot, Quiet Dawn directly addresses the Haitian Revolution, through the eyes of both the plantocracy, and the enslaved peoples under their control.