Crossing the Mangrove By Maryse Condé

Published: 30/09/2021

Genres: Fiction - France - Mystery - Book Club - Literary Fiction - 20th Century - Novels

Francis Sancher—a handsome outsider, loved by some and reviled by others—is found dead, face down in the mud on a path outside Rivière au Sel, a small village in Guadeloupe.  None of the villagers are 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—either in a speech to the mourners, or in an internal monologue—reveal another piece of the mystery behind Sancher's 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. In the lush and vivid prose for which she has become famous, Condé has constructed a Guadeloupean wake for Francis Sancher.

Publisher information

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780241530054
Number of pages: 192
Dimensions: 199 x 130 x 13 mm
Weight: 150 g
Language: English (Language of text), French (Original language of a translated text)