Gérard Étienne, novelist of exile, dies in New Brunswick

Gérard Étienne died in December 2008. A novelist, poet and journalist, he was jailed and tortured under François Duvalier before escaping to Canada in 1964, where he taught at the Université de Moncton and wrote the novels (Le Nègre crucifié among them) that put the Duvalier terror into French-language literature. Sources differ on the day: his publisher’s notice gives 14 December, while Le Nouvelliste and Radio-Canada carried the news on the 15th. This entry follows the publisher’s date. The 15th is not a death date. It is a publication date.