cover image Never the Hope Itself: Love and Ghosts in Latin America and Haiti

Never the Hope Itself: Love and Ghosts in Latin America and Haiti

Gerry Hadden. Harper Perennial, $14.99 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-06-202007-9

Former NPR correspondent Hadden's offbeat, gripping memoir relates his experiences covering migrations, earthquakes, and revolutions in Latin America in the first years of the 21st century. On the verge of becoming a Buddhist monk, Hadden was offered a job as NPR's Latin America correspondent. From his base in Mexico, Hadden dashed around the region, finding himself among arms smugglers in Panama, desperate migrants in El Salvador, and on the bloody streets of Port-au-Prince as Haiti lurched from one crisis to the next. Hadden ties together the disparate narrative with his own story of romance and betrayal in a haunted house in Mexico City. He deftly builds momentum to his biggest story%E2%80%94the plight of Central American migrants%E2%80%94setting it against the backdrop of post-9/11 America. He also narrates personal dramas that involve strongly defined characters, poltergeists, an exorcism, and a love story with a happy ending. It's the rare journalist who shows such a mystical bent, but Hadden's quirks and openness give his book a rare charm. Photos. (Sept.)