Edwidge Danticat's first novel in over a decade opens with violence in a Miami mall, where the protagonist Magnolia hears gunfire while shopping for her daughter's birthday present. A killer described as a young man "high on hate" carries out the attack, motivated by online screeds about the country being "under attack" and obsessed with cane toads migrating from the Amazon basin. Magnolia scrambles to the floor of a restaurant called Oasis as dozens of diners play dead around her.
The novel explores Magnolia's difficult history. Her mother struggles with mental illness, chasing pigeons during the day and sleepwalking at night while cycling on and off lithium medication. Her father worked as a bus driver in Brooklyn for years, saving money to buy a retirement home in Haiti. Magnolia was raised by an aunt whose own family was killed by enforcers of Haiti's dictator Papa Doc Duvalier. She found refuge in school, eventually attending college.
The Guardian's review notes that "Dèy" lacks the power of Danticat's earlier works, suggesting the novel does not match the impact of her previous fiction despite its ambitious opening and exploration of themes around motherhood, generational trauma and the immigrant experience.