Ninth Letter Serialization of “In a Distant Country”

For the last six weeks, Ninth Letter serialized my long epistolary story “In a Distant Country,” in six parts, putting up a new section once a week, as part of their Featured Writer series. The story is a companion piece to my novel-in-progress The Sexual Lives of Missionaries. It takes the form of letters home by minor characters from the novel. The letters trace through the decades the observations and complaints of others about the fate of Sheila Brocken, an 18-year-old girl who marries a lecherous 42-year-old missionary she meets on a work trip to Koulev-Ville, Haiti. The letters begin before their marriage, and continue through her husband’s death in the dechoukaj uprising at the end of the Duvalier era, and on into an ever more uncertain future. Each installment will be accompanied by a painting or illustration. First up was an untitled oil painting by Frankentiénne (see above), who also was the writer of Dezafi, the first novel ever published in Kreyol rather than French. I’ve posted links, below, to each Ninth Letter installment, and a link to the final PDF, which includes all six installments as the full version of the story:

Part One · Part Two · Part Three · Part Four · Part Five · Part Six

“In a Distant Country” Complete Story PDF (Ninth Letter Magazine-Style Layout)

excerpt from companion novel-in-progress The Sexual Lives of Missionaries, at Guernica: http://www.guernicamag.com/fiction/2863/kyle_minor_7_15_11/