Everything Inside

Everything Inside (2019) is a short story collection by Haitian American author Edwidge Danticat. The eight stories in this collection, which focus primarily on the lives of Haitian people living across the Caribbean, are connected by their interest in loss and the search for identity. Like many of her characters, Danticat immigrated to the United States from Haiti at a young age; her love for Haiti and its history is evident throughout the collection, despite the violence and suffering on which her stories center. The stories in the collection touch upon a wide range of topics, including the trauma of immigration, the legacy of political violence in Haiti, and the search for cultural identity. Each of the eight stories in Everything Inside appeared elsewhere, in journals and magazines such as The Caribbean Writer, The New Yorker, Granta, and The Washington Post Magazine.

This summary is based on the 2019 Knopf edition of the text.

Plot Summary

The protagonist of “Dosas,” the first story in the collection, is a Haitian American nurse’s assistant named Elsie. One day, Elsie’s ex-husband Blaise calls to tell her that his new girlfriend Olivia—who was once Elsie’s best friend—has been kidnapped in Haiti, and that the kidnappers are demanding a ransom of $50,000.