The Farming of Bones Summary

Amabelle Désir, an orphaned Haitian woman in the Dominican Republic, is in love with Sebastien Onius, a cane worker. One morning, Amabelle is woken by screams, and she realizes her employer, Señora Valencia, is entering premature labor. Amabelle rushes to help, while the señora’s father, Don Ignacio, calls for their neighborhood physician, Doctor Javier. Amabelle helps the señora deliver two children, a boy and girl: the girl, Rosalinda, has darker skin, and Señora Valencia comments that she might be “mistaken for one of” Amabelle’s people.

Doctor Javier arrives after the birth. Amabelle tells him that her mother and father were healers; hearing this, the doctor urges Amabelle to travel back to Haiti as a midwife. Soon after, a housemaid, Juana, returns and is informed of the household’s new additions; she is moved to tears, and describes how Señora Valencia’s mother died in childbirth. Juana then confesses that she wished to have children of her own, but was unable to sustain a pregnancy.

Later that evening, Señor Pico, the señora’s husband, returns home; he names his son Rafael, after the Dominican Republic’s dictator, the Generalissimo. Amabelle overhears a conversation between Juana and her husband, Luis; Luis recounts how Señor Pico sped home in his car after hearing about the delivery, and recklessly struck a pedestrian. The man was pushed into a ravine, and died. Amabelle worries that the pedestrian is Sebastien. Don Ignacio, who was in the vehicle, tells her to inform him when she learns the name of the victim.

As the day ends, Amabelle waits anxiously, unsure whether Sebastien was caught in the car accident. To stave off anxiety, she daydreams about Henry I’s citadel, a landmark near her childhood home in Haiti. Sebastien then arrives at Amabelle’s homehe is injured, and says he must help Kongo bury his son, Joël, who was killed by Señor Pico in the car accident.

When Sebastien leaves, Amabelle has a violent dream about her parents’ death: when she was young, her parents drowned in the Dajabón River, also known as the Massacre River. Sebastien returns and comforts her, and claims that the Haitian community in the Dominican Republic is made up of “wayfarers.”

At dawn, Amabelle goes to the stream behind a “neighboring cane mill,” and speaks with Mimi, Sebastien’s sister. Amabelle and Mimi speculate about Kongo’s plans after the death of his son, as many in the Haitian community want justice or revenge. Amabelle then visits the houses of other Haitians in the community; these acquaintances have thriving businesses, but are less wealthy than the “rich Haitians.” Amabelle overhears many conversations about “being sent back to Haiti,” as no one has “birth papers” that prove their identity.

Amabelle returns to her work, and serves Beatriz and Don Ignacio tea. She overhears their conversation, and Don Ignacio recounts his past: he describes fleeing “bloody battles,” and his conduct in war. He also admits that he does not like the way “things are conducted” in his new home country, and distrusts the “worship of uniforms.”

Afterwards, Amabelle runs into Doctor Javier, who asks if she has considered his offer to return to Haiti, but she is called away by Juana before she can answer. She then intercepts Don Ignacio, and informs him of Joël’s death, before retreating into the house to help Señora Valencia with the babies. When the two women check on Rafael, the señora’s son, they realize he is no longer breathing, and has passed away.

Afterwards, a neighbor’s party becomes “Rafael’s unofficial wake,” and the guests mourn the family’s loss. The party disperses, and Señora Valencia asks her husband to bury their son’s clothes; she then seeks out Juana for stories about her mother, Doña Rosalinda. Amabelle visits Kongo after the wake, and tells him that Don Ignacio wishes to speak to him. Kongo, unwilling to meet, asks Amabelle to tell Don Ignacio that his son, Joël, “was a man.”

The next morning, Señor Pico and Señora Valencia prepare their son’s casket, and Señor Pico drives it away for the burial. Amabelle’s acquaintances pass by the señora’s house, and Señora Valencia invites them in for coffee. Many of them are distrustful, as there are “rumors of groups of Haitians being killed in the night.” Kongo accepts the invitation, however, and ventures up to the house to give his condolences and reminiscence about his son, Joël.

Days pass, and Rosalinda’s baptism occurs. After the celebration, Kongo finds Amabelle and gives her a mask of Joël’s face in order to commemorate his death. Kongo also says that Sebastien has asked her to “promise” herself “to him,” and is following the old customs by sending Kongo as a stand-in for his parents. Amabelle rushes to see Sebastien, but is warned against traveling at night by a “watchman brigade” of her neighbors; one watchman repeats the rumors about Haitians being targeted or killed. Amabelle arrives at Sebastien’s room, and the two fall asleep while Yves, Sebastien’s friend, mutters in his sleep.

The next morning, Amabelle returns to Señora Valencia’s house. Doctor Javier arrives and tells Amabelle to leave immediately, as there are rumors that “soldiers and civilians are killing Haitians.” Frightened, Amabelle runs to Sebastien, and they discuss whether to join a group that will cross into Haiti. Sebastien advises them to talk to Kongo, and Kongo reveals that he met and talked with Don Ignacio. Kongo then gives a “benediction” to Sebastien and Amabelle, who decide they will return to Haiti.

Amabelle once again returns to Señora Valencia’s house, where the señora anxiously awaits her father’s homecoming. The house’s occupants hear military trucks, and venture outside to see Señor Pico standing with soldiers against a group of Haitian men; these same men were members of the watchman brigade that advised Amabelle to avoid traveling at night. More people gather, and the soldiers tell the brigade to drop their machetes and get into the trucks, as they will be taken to the border. Doctor Javier’s mother then interrupts the standoff, asking to speak to Señor Pico about her son’s arrest, and Señor Pico brushes her off. The soldiers drive their truck into the brigade, and begin attacking any fleeing spectators.

Amabelle runs to the church where she had planned to meet with other escapees, but it is empty. Distraught, she travels through the cane fields to see Kongo, and hears that Mimi and Sebastien have been arrested alongside Doctor Javier. Kongo tells her that the soldiers will bring the prisoners to a “prison near Dajabón,” and Amabelle makes this her destination. Before leaving, she informs Yves of her plans, and he agrees to travel with her.

Amabelle and Yves escape together, traveling overnight up a mountain path. They come across other refugees: Odette and her partner Wilner; Tibon, who escaped death after being told to jump off a cliff by Dominican soldiers; and two Dominican sisters, Dolores and Doloritas. Amabelle and Yves join this group, and all of them continue their journey through the mountain. Eventually, Wilner and the other Haitians tell Dolores and Doloritas to leave the group, as they are Dominican and less likely to be persecuted or attacked.

Eventually, the group arrives in a central square in Dajabón, and Wilner and Odette leave to investigate the river. The travelers realize Trujillo is inside the nearby church. Wary of attention, the travelers move into a grove, but are soon approached by young men. The men start taunting the group; Tibon fights back, and is killed. The men then ask Yves and Amabelle, “Que diga perejil,” Spanish for “How do you say parsley?” The young men believe they will pronounce the word incorrectly, as they are Haitians. Yves and Amabelle are then force fed parsley and beaten.

Odette and Wilner reappear and take Yves and Amabelle, who are wounded, to a safe house. Unfortunately, soldiers are visiting nearby, so the four travelers escape to the river. They begin their crossing, but Wilner is spotted by soldiers; they shoot him, forcing Odettewho is already in the waterto panic. Amabelle, swimming beside her, holds her hand over Odette’s mouth to quiet her, and when Odette struggles, Amabelle accidentally suffocates her.

Amabelle and Yves escape detection and are found the next morning “by a priest and a young doctor,” who takes them to tents set up for the wounded. Amabelle falls in and out of a fever, overhearing conversations between survivors about their experiences amidst the violence. Eventually, she is reunited with Yves, who tells her he will go back to his land in Haiti; she says she will go with him.

The next day, they are driven to the Cap, a port city in Haiti, and Yves reunites with his mother, Man Rapadou. A celebratory feast is prepared, and Man Rapadou tells the story of Yves’s father’s death: he died over a plate of food after being released from prison.

As days pass, Amabelle continues to recover from her injuries. She learns about Man Denise, Sebastien’s mother; she also tries to connect with Yves by asking him about his farming, as he spends every day in the fields. Yves tells Amabelle that a justice of the peace is writing down stories from Haitians who survived the violence in the Dominican Republic.

The next day, Amabelle joins the crowd vying for the justice’s attention, and sees Man Denise. People split from the crowd to go to Man Denise’s house, and Amabelle stays with her overnight. In the morning, she talks with Man Denise, who recounts the reasons for Mimi and Sebastien’s emigration to the Dominican Republic. Man Denise reveals that people have told her that both of her children died in the violence. Amabelle returns home and mourns for the rest of the day. Later that night, Yves confesses that he saw soldiers put Mimi and Sebastien into a truck, alongside Doctor Javier.

Although Amabelle holds out hope that Sebastien is alive, she wishes for “a life where everything was constantly the same.” Years pass, and she grows older. On the day of Rafael Trujillo’s death, Amabelle joins in the town’s festivities and realizes that her life has become a “routine of sewing and sleeping.”

One day, Amabelle ventures down to the river and asks to be carried back into the Dominican Republic so she can visit the town of Señora Valencia, named Alégria. Amabelle arrives and speaks with Señora Valencia, who initially does not recognize her. The señora describes how her home and family have changedJuana and Luis have left, Rosalinda married youngand tells Amabelle that she hid many of her “people” during the massacre.

One of the señora’s housemaids joins them, and asks why Dominican soldiers would request that Haitians pronounce “parsley.” Señora Valencia recounts a story about Trujillo, who one day tried to kill a Haitian worker fleeing through the fields. Trujillo told the worker he would spare him if he called out his locationthe worker called out the name of the fields’ crops, but mispronounced the word for parsley. Trujillo realized that Haitians could “never hide as long as there is parsley nearby.”

Amabelle wishes Señora Valencia well, and returns home. She is dropped off by the Massacre River, and, thinking about all the violence and death she has witnessed, steps into the river. She floats and paddles in the current, and begins to express hope and cherish her future: she tells herself that she is “looking for the dawn.”