Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. There are costs to a revolution.

That's true here in the U.S., and it's true in other countries too, such as in Haiti.

The two countries are linked in the novel Kingdom of No Tamar by Fabian Josepha.

It's about a young woman in the 1960s who leaves Haiti for the states and gets

involved with the Black Panthers. In this interview with NPR's R. Shapiro, Josepha talks about

what the revolutionary movement here and in Haiti had in common and what it takes for a movement to

succeed. That's coming up. In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Sometimes history can help us better understand the present.

The author Fabienne Josepha had that experience back in 2012 when she found helpful lessons from the Black Panther

movement of the late 1960s. After the death of Trayvon Martin, I felt I was emotionally overwhelmed

with everything that was going on in the country. I stumbled upon a documentary on the Black

Panthers, and I realized the more that I was learning

about them, that they were very familiar to me. And then I remember that it's because I grew up

with the Black Panthers on my father's reading shelf. That shelf was in Haiti where she grew up. Today

Josepha lives in South Florida, and she's written a new novel about the Black

Panthers called Kingdom of No Tomorrow.

The protagonist, Nettie, is a young woman who moved from Haiti to Oakland, California.

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