Elsie Augustave

Elsie Augustave is a Haitian-American author. Her debut novel, The Roving Tree, follows a young Haitian adoptee, Iris Odys, through various journeys across the world. Odys is the rejected daughter of a Haitian maid and of the middle-class Haitian man who employs her. In addition to the struggle for identity of cross-cultural adoptees, the book explores themes of class, color and religion in Haiti. McArthur prize winner Edwidge Danticat described the book to The New York Times as "a gorgeous new novel about a Haitian adoptee finding her way in many different corners of the world."