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 a publication date, not a death date.