'An extraordinary storyteller' Bernardine Evaristo

'People say that on the first night Francis Sancher spent in Riviere au Sel the wind in its temper screamed down from the mountains...'

Francis Sancher always said he would come to an unnatural end. So when this handsome newcomer to the Guadeloupean village of Riviere au Sel is found dead, face down in the mud, no one is particularly surprised. Loved by some - especially women - and reviled by others, Francis was an enigmatic figure. Where did he come from? What caused his strange nocturnal wanderings? What devils haunted him? As the villagers come to pay their respects, they each reveal another piece of the mystery behind his life and death - and their own buried secrets and stories come to light.

'The grand queen, the empress, of Caribbean literature' Fiammetta Rocco, Guardian

About the Author
Maryse Conde was born at Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, in 1937 and spent most of her life in West Africa (Guinea, Ghana and Senegal), France and the US, where she taught at the University of California, Berkeley, UCLA and Columbia. The publication of her bestselling third novel, Segu (1984), established her pre-eminent position among Caribbean writers. She won Le Grand Prix Litteraire de la Femme in 1986 as well as Le Prix de L'Academie Francaise in 1988 and was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2015. In 2018 she was awarded the alternative Nobel prize for literature and described as a 'grand storyteller who belongs to world literature'.

Reviews
The grand queen, the empress, of Caribbean literature -- Fiammetta Rocco * Guardian *
Maryse Conde's prodigious fictional universes are founded on a radical and generative disregard for boundaries based on geography, religion, history, race, and gender -- Angela Y. Davis
A story of life in all its flavours . . . a fluid, mobile narrative, passing easily from person to person. Fascinating and beautiful -- John Self * The Observer *
A masterly storyteller * New York Times Book Review *
A treasure of world literature, writing from the center of the African diaspora with brilliance and a profound understanding of all humanity -- Russell Banks
Conde writes elegantly in a style that beautifully survives translation from the French. . . She gives readers a flavor of the French and Creole stew that is the Guadeloupan tongue. In so doing, Conde conveys the many subtle distinctions of color, class, and language that made up this society * Chicago Tribune *



Book Information
ISBN 9780241530054
Author Maryse Conde
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Penguin Classics
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 145g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 11mm