Justin Haynes – författare

An influential medieval allegorical interpretation of the Metamorphoses that uncovers the hidden moral truths of Ovid’s stories, translated into English for the first time.Written in about 1340 in Avignon by the Benedictine preacher Pierre Bersuire, The Moralized Ovid—commonly referred to by its Latin title, Ovidius moralizatus, to distinguish it from the anonymous French vernacular Ovide moralisé—was arguably the most influential interpretation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses in the High Middle Ages. It circulated widely in manuscript form and was frequently printed during the Renaissance. Originally intended as a sourcebook of exempla for preachers’ sermons, The Moralized Ovid provides not only a window into the reception of classical literature in the fourteenth century but also amazingly vivid details of daily life in the Middle Ages across all strata of society.The work begins with a detailed description of the Greco-Roman gods, inspired in part by Bersuire’s friend and fellow proponent of classical poetry, Francesco Petrarch. It then retells selected major myths from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, each followed by numerous allegorical interpretations that draw from biblical stories, contemporary events, and the natural world.This edition presents the first full English translation alongside an authoritative Latin text.

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 FICTIONA bold, witty, magical new voice in fiction, Justin Haynes weaves a cross-generational Caribbean story of migration, superstition, and a search for family in the novel Ibis. “This brilliant, shape-shifting novel teems with charms and curses, stunning disasters and startling moments of grace.” —Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation and Weather “Justin Haynes proves himself an absolute alchemist of fiction . . . This is a stunning debut as witty as is it is rapturous.” ―Jericho Brown, MacArthur Fellow and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Tradition “Evoking the themes of Ovid, the language of Toni Morrison, and the genre-blending of Octavia Butler, Haynes scales the heights of his ambition. This soaring work is not to be missed.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred ReviewThere is bad luck in New Felicity. The people of the small coastal village have taken in Milagros, an 11-year-old Venezuelan refugee, just as Trinidad’s government has begun cracking down on undocumented migrants—and now an American journalist has come to town asking questions.New Felicity’s superstitious fishermen fear the worst, certain they’ve brought bad luck on the village by killing a local witch who had herself murdered two villagers the year before. The town has been plagued since her death by alarming visits from her supernatural mother, as well as by a mysterious profusion of scarlet ibis birds.Skittish that the reporter’s story will bring down the wrath of the ministry of national security, the fishermen take things into their own hands. From there, we go backward and forward in time—from the town’s early days, when it was the site of a sugar plantation, to Milagros’s adulthood as she searches for her mother across the Americas.In between, through the voices of a chorus of narrators, we glimpse moments from various villagers’ lives, each one setting into motion events that will reverberate outwards across the novel and shape Milagros’s fate.With kinetic, absorbing language and a powerful sense of voice, Ibis meditates on the bond between mothers and daughters, both highlighting the migrant crisis that troubles the contemporary world and offering a moving exploration of how to square where we come from with who we become.