Ibis

WINNER OF THE L.A. TIMES BOOK PRIZE 2025 ART SEIDENBAUM AWARD FOR FIRST FICTION; WINNER OF THE 2026 PEN AMERICA OPEN BOOK AWARD; WINNER OF THE 2026 OCM BOCAS PRIZE FOR CARIBBEAN LITERATURE (FICTION); WINNER GEORGIA AUTHOR OF THE YEAR (FIRST NOVEL); SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE; SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2026 WILLIAM SAROYAN INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR WRITING; FINALIST FOR THE 2026 ZORA AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION

A bold, witty, and magical cross-generational story of migration, superstition, and the search for family

New Felicity's bad luck goes back centuries. Shaped by slavery, rebellion, and repression, the small coastal village in Trinidad is now facing a crackdown by the government, just as its people have taken in Milagros, an 11-year-old refugee from Venezuela. Meanwhile, scarlet ibis birds have mysteriously started appearing in town, and New Felicity's superstitious fisherman fear the worst, certain they've brought on bad luck by killing a local witch. Skittish that a reporter's story will bring down the wrath of the Ministry of National Security, the fishermen take things into their own hands. 

Justin Haynes's widely acclaimed Ibis moves backward and forward in time, from the town's early days as a sugar plantation to Milagros's adulthood as she searches for her mother across the Americas. A novel of mothers and daughters, origins and becomings, Ibis is a moving exploration of the migrant crisis and the contemporary Caribbean.