Mischa Berlinski’s second novel, PEACEKEEPING, opens with an explanation of the Reid technique of interrogation. Terry White, an American who lost money in the 2007-2008 financial crisis, has come to Haiti as a United Nations trainer and is a model interrogator, working the suspect Antwan with a combination of scientific labels, choices between the lesser of two evils, and common sense. He waits for Antwan’s confession and --- in a great moment of intimacy between the two men --- the second, honest justification for the crime. Sometimes simply boredom, sometimes desperate need. And Terry responds, always, “I understand.”

PEACEKEEPING takes place in Jérémie, a small Haitian village sitting on the Caribbean Sea on the northern coast. Terry meets an American-educated judge, Johel Célestin, who is likable, reliable and idealistic. At Johel’s engagement party in Manhattan years ago, the musicians who came to play for the event included Nadia, a Creole who has been traded and sold many times since leaving Haiti. She is so slender, so lovely in a silver lame dress. And in a moment Johel forgets his blonde American fiancée when he stares into a pair of blue-green eyes set in a sculpted, unsmiling beautiful face. She has no visa and has run afoul of the law, so she must return to Haiti; Johel quits his New York life and marries her, and they return.

"The snapshots of Haitian culture and characters highlight this rich and complex novel."

An unnamed writer whose writing is not going anywhere becomes the bystander storyteller as Johel is urged by White and others to run a campaign against the current Sénateur. Nadia, haunted by many demons, capitalized Fear among them, does not want a political life or the dangers of affronting the powerful, corrupt structure in place. Terry also falls into the beautiful blue-green eyes and loves her, all the while encouraging and helping her husband compete in the election.

The judge’s campaign runs on the simple promise that he would repair a much-needed road from Jérémie to Port-au-Prince, giving the poor villagers reliable access to markets and healthcare. Building a road becomes Terry’s dream as well, “one solid thing might be enough for a lifetime.” He makes the judge promise that whatever else happens, he will just drive down that road and remember the good they did together. After the satisfying outcome of the election, the earthquake of January 12, 2010 at 4:53 in the afternoon interrupts and changes everything. There was too much Life and Death, too present and too intense to do anything but be part of Jérémie.

The snapshots of Haitian culture and characters highlight this rich and complex novel. Berlinski shows us the promise and despair, the divisions among descendants of slaves and slave owners, the poverty that is taken for granted, the oppressive heat. And after the unexpected and satisfying conclusion, there is the moment, perhaps, for Terry White to be there once again, listen to Nadia’s story and simply say, “I understand.”