HEADLINER
Literature and Fiction
NIGHT PASSENGERS
Haitian novelist, Yanick Lahens interweaves the destinies of two nineteenth century Haitian women - one in New Orleans and the other in Port-au-Prince. This book examines violence in society while considering the relationship between colonialism and emancipation.
Interview with Sabine Wespieser, who has been publishing this multi-award-winning author in France for nearly twenty years.
France Livre: Sabine Wespieser, what story does Yanick Lahens tell in this book and who are these night passengers?
Sabine Wespieser: In this novel, Yanick Lahens paints mirrored portraits of two Haitian women who, through their silent tenacity, were both able to resist the violence of the societies into which they were born. The first, brought as a child from the African continent to become a slave in Saint-Domingue, later became a prosperous merchant in New Orleans after gaining her freedom. The second was born among the poorest of the poor in a Haitian village and, in Port-au-Prince, crossed paths with a liberator who would become "her general, her lover, her man." Both are "night passengers" because they arrived in the colonies aboard slave ships. But these passengers also stand for all the women who have been rendered invisible throughout history.
France Livre: You have been publishing Yanick Lahens for nearly twenty years. What makes this work so different that it compels you to describe it as a real gift from her?
Sabine Wespieser: Yes, it's true. I do feel as though she has given me a gift. Yanick Lahens still lives in Port-au-Prince and in this book she shares a true experience with us, we follow her ascendants, their enlightening valour and their resistance to their worlds’ violence. Its language was forged in the crucible of Haitian nineteenth and twentieth century literature. It reflects a relationship to a center, a world of independence, which is France. Night Passengers, like all the author's works, forces us to refocus.
France Livre: Why is this novel also important for readers from countries other than France?
Sabine Wespieser: Its importance comes, of course, from its literary power, but also from the way in which its language and its theme help us to reflect on the relationship between colonization and female emancipation. Yanick Lahens, against all odds, was predestined to become a Professor at the Collège de France and to be the winner of the Femina Prize for Bain de lune and the Grand Prix of the Académie française for Passagères de nuit. These achievements, difficult as they are to accomplish, are in and of themselves an encouraging sign of progress.
France Livre: This novel has been unanimously praised by the press in France. Elle magazine, for example, underlines the "mysterious beauty of this novel’s world" in which "Yanick Lahens holds fast to the intimate upheavals that also make history." 35,000 copies have been sold here in France to date. Translation rights have already been sold for four languages, including English in the United States. What did you do to convince foreign publishers?
Sabine Wespieser: Yanick Lahens' work had already been translated in many countries, particularly in countries of the global south – Latin America, India – even before the success of Passagères de nuit, which attracted new publishers in Europe and now the United States, with its very large Haitian diaspora. Foreign publishers have no doubt been seduced by everything I have just said...
Passagères de nuit received the Grand Prix de l'Académie française. Translation rights have been sold in English (United States), German, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish (Spain).
Interview by Katja Petrovic
June 2026
Haitian novelist, Yanick Lahens interweaves the destinies of two nineteenth century Haitian women - one in New Orleans and the other in Port-au-Prince. This book examines violence in society while considering the relationship between colonialism and emancipation.
Interview with Sabine Wespieser, who has been publishing this multi-award-winning author in France for nearly twenty years.
France Livre: Sabine Wespieser, what story does Yanick Lahens tell in this book and who are these night passengers?
Sabine Wespieser: In this novel, Yanick Lahens paints mirrored portraits of two Haitian women who, through their silent tenacity, were both able to resist the violence of the societies into which they were born. The first, brought as a child from the African continent to become a slave in Saint-Domingue, later became a prosperous merchant in New Orleans after gaining her freedom. The second was born among the poorest of the poor in a Haitian village and, in Port-au-Prince, crossed paths with a liberator who would become "her general, her lover, her man." Both are "night passengers" because they arrived in the colonies aboard slave ships. But these passengers also stand for all the women who have been rendered invisible throughout history.
France Livre: You have been publishing Yanick Lahens for nearly twenty years. What makes this work so different that it compels you to describe it as a real gift from her?
Sabine Wespieser: Yes, it's true. I do feel as though she has given me a gift. Yanick Lahens still lives in Port-au-Prince and in this book she shares a true experience with us, we follow her ascendants, their enlightening valour and their resistance to their worlds’ violence. Its language was forged in the crucible of Haitian nineteenth and twentieth century literature. It reflects a relationship to a center, a world of independence, which is France. Night Passengers, like all the author's works, forces us to refocus.
France Livre: Why is this novel also important for readers from countries other than France?
Sabine Wespieser: Its importance comes, of course, from its literary power, but also from the way in which its language and its theme help us to reflect on the relationship between colonization and female emancipation. Yanick Lahens, against all odds, was predestined to become a Professor at the Collège de France and to be the winner of the Femina Prize for Bain de lune and the Grand Prix of the Académie française for Passagères de nuit. These achievements, difficult as they are to accomplish, are in and of themselves an encouraging sign of progress.
France Livre: This novel has been unanimously praised by the press in France. Elle magazine, for example, underlines the "mysterious beauty of this novel’s world" in which "Yanick Lahens holds fast to the intimate upheavals that also make history." 35,000 copies have been sold here in France to date. Translation rights have already been sold for four languages, including English in the United States. What did you do to convince foreign publishers?
Sabine Wespieser: Yanick Lahens' work had already been translated in many countries, particularly in countries of the global south – Latin America, India – even before the success of Passagères de nuit, which attracted new publishers in Europe and now the United States, with its very large Haitian diaspora. Foreign publishers have no doubt been seduced by everything I have just said...
Passagères de nuit received the Grand Prix de l'Académie française. Translation rights have been sold in English (United States), German, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish (Spain).
Interview by Katja Petrovic
June 2026