Zo, Hardcover

A riveting, gorgeously written debut novel--a contemporary Romeo and Juliet saga with great emotional power, set in Haiti during the 2010 earthquake and its aftermath.

His name is Zwazo Delalun, but everyone calls him Zo. Growing up an orphan, in the 1990s in a fishing village on the western tip of Haiti, he learns first to swim, then to harvest almonds and cut cane. He apprentices himself to fishermen and vendors, and to a series of women who teach him what it might mean to fall in love.

One morning, while hauling cement in the broiling sun, he meets Anaya, a beautiful nursing student who is sipping cherry juice under a tree. Their attraction is instantaneous, fierce. But Anaya's father cannot accept that a poor, uneducated man such as Zo is good enough for his daughter. To avoid his watchful eye, Zo and Anaya escape to the hills outside Port-au-Prince. There, Anaya continues her education and Zo finds a job with an enterprising old cart-runner, and they are happy, until the unthinkable happens: a massive earthquake churns the ground beneath the capital city. Zo watches as apartment buildings, churches, and the nursing school--where Anaya is--are reduced to rubble in a searing instant. Bargaining against all odds, fueled by adrenaline, he makes a life-risking decision to try to find her.

Suspenseful and heartrending, Zo is a work of gorgeous lyricism and deep emotional power. Rooted in a moment of tragedy and transformation in Haiti, it tells a timeless story of passion, resilience, and hope.

XANDER MILLER has worked at national parks and monuments in Washington and Arizona and as an emergency medical technician in New Mexico. In the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, he was a volunteer EMT and founded a nonprofit called Ambulance for Haiti. He met his wife, Naomi, in her hometown of Petit Goave, Haiti. Zo is his first novel.