Crossing the Mangrove
  • Published: 5 January 2022
  • ISBN: 9780241530054
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $26.00
Categories:

Crossing the Mangrove

Formats & editions
Paperback
5 Jan 2022
EBook
2 Sep 2021
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A mesmerizing novel from one of the most important writers working today, winner of the alternative Nobel Prize

Francis Sancher, a handsome outsider, loved by some and reviled by others, is found dead, face down in the mud on a path outside Riviere au Sel, a small village in Guadeloupe. No one is particularly surprised since Sancher, a secretive and melancholy man, had often predicted an unnatural death for himself. As the villagers come to pay their respects, they each reveal another piece of the mystery behind his life and death.

Like pieces of an elaborate puzzle, their memories interlock to create a rich and intriguing portrait of a man and a community. A beautifully crafted, Rashomon-like novel, this gripping story, first published in France in 1989, is imbued with all the nuances and traditions of Caribbean culture.
  • Published: 5 January 2022
  • ISBN: 9780241530054
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $26.00
Categories:

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Praise for Crossing the Mangrove

The grand queen, the empress, of Caribbean literature

Fiammetta Rocco, Guardian

A masterly storyteller

New York Times Book Review

Condé 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

A treasure of world literature, writing from the center of the African diaspora with brilliance and a profound understanding of all humanity

Russell Banks

Maryse Condé'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