Hilarius Hilarion, a young, unfortunate Black man from Port-au-Prince, steals to survive. The police catch him and beat him. He ends up in prison, where he meets a communist activist who tells him that the American masters are depriving Black people of all the good things in life. Upon his release from prison, Hilarion becomes a communist. He marries Claire-Heureuse, whom he met on the beach, and who bears him a child. Hilarion finally knows joy. Not for long, alas! Fascist assassins kill him. He dies in broad daylight. This novel by Jacques Alexis, who is Haitian, is deeply influenced by the style of the “storytellers” and carries on the art of the “sambas,” the Indian troubadours of Haiti. Alexis, the author of this novel illuminated by the joy of living, died like his hero Hilarion. He, too, was assassinated.