Maryse Condé

Victoire The Marquis of Tarn's family were not surprised to be told that he had broken the heart and ruined the reputation of a girl in Ireland, but they were surprised at the extremely pretty, shy young lady who was produced as his victim. Fortunately the Marquis arrived in time to proclaim Victoire Duvenay an arrant imposter, but not before Victoire, an unwilling cat's paw in her cousin's scheme, had come to the same embarrassing conclusion. But Victoire, not so defenceless and gullible as she seems, has no intention of becoming anyone's pawn or prey. Emerging as a leading light of the London season, she soon has the hot tempered, hot blooded Tarn dancing attendance upon her, and a host of rakes, fortune hunters, and rogues swarming around. Despite the rivalry of a beautiful Condessa who does not intend to lose Tarn to anyone, the machinations of Tarn's cousin who plots to inherit the title, and the designs of a handsome young officer from her own past, she sets out to tame the notoriously arrogant Marquis, and teach him an unforgettable lesson in love.

The Last of the African Kings (Les derniers rois mages) follows the wayward fortunes of a noble African family. It begins with the regal Behanzin, an African king who opposed French colonialism and was exiled to distant Martinique. In the course of the novel, Maryse Conde tell of Behanzin's scattered offspring and their lives in the Caribbean and the United States. With many characters and countless stories, The Last of the African Kings skillfully intertwines the themes of exile, lost origins, memory, and hope. The book is set mainly in the Americas, from the Caribbean to modern-day South Carolina, yet Africa hovers always in the background.

A tale of revenge set in the Caribbean, in which the hero gets back at a rich man who stole his love by impregnating her after she becomes the man's wife. The result is tragedy, the woman dying in childbirth. By the author of Black Witch of Salem.

Offered here for the first time in English is I, Tituba Black Witch of Salem, by Guadeloupean writer Maryse Conde. This wild and entertaining novel, winner of the 1986 Grand Prix Litteraire de la Femme, expands on the true story of the West Indian slave Tituba, who was accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, arrested in 1692, and forgotten in jail until the general amnesty for witches two years later. Maryse Conde brings Tituba out of historical silence and. Creates for her a fictional childhood, adolescence, and old age. She turns her into what she calls "a sort of female hero, an epic heroine, like the legendary 'Nanny of the maroons, "' who, schooled in the sorcery and magical ritual of obeah, is arrested for healing members of the family that owns her. Rich with postmodern irony, the novel even includes an encounter with Hester Prawn of Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter. Conde breaks new ground in both style and content. Transcending cultural and epochal boundaries, not only exposing the hypocrisy of Puritan New England but challenging us to look at racism and religious bigotry in contemporary America. This highly readable and ultimately joyful novel celebrates Tituba's unique voice, exploring issues of identity and the implications of Otherness in Western literary tradition. Its multiple layers will delight a wide variety of readers.

"In the port town of La Pointe in Guadeloupe, Reynalda, a pregnant teenager, is rescued from drowning by a local cook who raises her and the daughter she bears. Reynalda had run away from her mother, Nina, and the unsavory Italian jeweler for whom she kept house. The child, Marie-Noelle is scarcely noticed by her mother, who soon leaves for a job in Paris. It is the harsh and beautiful island of Desirada where Reynalda was born, and where Nina's hermetic mother still lives, which may hold the key to Marie-Noelle's identity and the reason her mother abandoned her. Her journey leads to America and redemption as she pursues an education so that she can invent her own life."--BOOK JACKET.

"In Rihata, a small, sleepy backwater town in a fictitious African state, a couple and their family struggle to come to terms with each other against a background of political manoeuvring and upheaval."--Back cover.

"This book is an exploration of the life and art of Maryse Conde, who first won international acclaim for Segu, a novel about West African experience and the slave trade. Born in Guadeloupe in 1937, Conde lived in Guinea after it won its independence from France. Later she lived in Ghana and Senegal during turbulent, decisive moments in the histories of these countries. Her writings—novels, plays, essays, stories, and children’s books—have led her to an increasingly important role within Africa and throughout the world. Françoise Pfaff met Maryse Conde in 1981, when she first interviewed her. Their friendship grew quickly. In 1991 the two women continued recording conversations about Conde’s geographical sojourns and literary paths, her personality, and her thoughts. Their conversations reveal connections between Conde’s vivid art and her eventful, passionate life. In her encounters with historical and literary figures, and in her opinions on politics and culture, Conde appears as an engaging witness to her time. The conversations frequently sparkle with humor; at other moments they are infused with profound seriousness."--Provided by publisher.

Nouadhibou is a jumping off point from West Africa to Europe and the Americas. Its inhabitants, many recently arrived or preparing to leave, all hope for a better future, a longing summed up by the title (translation: Waiting for Happiness). Abdallah comes to visit his mother before emigrating to Europe. Unable to speak the local dialect, he keeps to himself, observing the villagers from a distance, reading and watching French TV. The orphan boy, Khatra, apprentice and adoptive son to waits for and fears Maata's death, the moment when he'll be his own master. A Chinese immigrant gives voice to the feeling of permanent exile. But amid this rootlessness, strong traditions live on. [The book] embraces the rhythms of a patient people, while the dreamlike passage of time and windswept desert locale create an aura of comforting timelessness, broken only by an exploding lightbulb or a sudden death. Maybe, muses Sissako, Waiting is actually the happiness.-

In Guadeloupe, a man is found dead in the village of Riviere au Sel. He was Francis Sancher, a handsome individual, liked by some and reviled by others. The villagers come to pay their last respects and in speech or in internal monologue reveal their relationship to him. They include the postman who was his friend, the man who hated his guts and the woman who wishes she could burn on his pyre.

"Maryse Conde was the eighth child in her family, an unexpected one. Her father, a civil servant, had been awarded the Legion d'honneur; her elegant mother had been a schoolteacher. She was raised to respect the culture of France. Her family was proud of its position in the world and mindful of distinctions of skin tone, language and class.". "In this collection of autobiographical essays, Maryse Conde evokes the relationships and events that gave her childhood meaning: her first crush; a falling out with her best friend; discovering her parents' feelings of alienation; the death of her beloved grandmother; her own first encounter with racism."--BOOK JACKET.

Notes: Translation of: La vie scélérate. Description: 371 p. ; 22 cm. Other Titles: Vie scélérate. Responsibility: Maryse Condé ; translated by Victoria Reiter. More information: Publisher description Abstract: The story of a Caribbean family whose history is as much their own as it is their native island's. When the narrator's forebear, Albert Louis, decides to go to Panama to make his fortune building the canal rather than stay at home cutting sugar like all his fellow blacks, he begins the ascendancy of the Louis family--a family that over the years will be divided by color (not just black and white but all the shades in between), money, and politics. In Panama, Albert finds money but not a fortune, encounters racial prejudice, learns about Marcus Garvey, and marries a Jamaican who dies giving birth to son Bert. Back home in Guadeloupe, the embittered father prospers in business but is disliked for his meanness and surly disposition. A second marriage follows, and the narrator's grandfather, the ugly but hard-working Jacob, is born. Births and deaths occur at a clip; the dead advise the living in dreams; and characters travel to New York, where more is learned of Garvey and black politics, and to France, where Bert, disowned because of his marriage to a white woman, commits suicide. Then on to Bert's niece, Jacob's daughter, pampered and indulged Thʹcla, who moves to France pregnant with the narrator, whom she leaves with a white family. Abandoned by her black lover, Thʹcla marries a white doctor, takes a side trip to New York, where she has an affair with a Malcolm X follower; goes to Jamaica, this time with daughter and new lover in tow; and then finally returns to her white husband in Paris, leaving daughter with grandfather and the obligation to tell ``the story of very ordinary people who in their own way had nonetheless made blood flow.'' Vivid writing, and certainly wide-ranging, though sometimes the fast pace leads to skimping on the plot. Still, a very readable story of an unfamiliar territory.

The year is 1797, and the kingdom of Segu is flourishing, fed by the wealth of its noblemen and the power of its warriors. The people of Segu, the Bambara, are guided by their griots and priests; their lives are ruled by the elements. But even their soothsayers can only hint at the changes to come, for the battle of the soul of Africa has begun. From the east comes a new religion, Islam, and from the West, the slave trade. Segu follows the life of Dousika Traore, the kingrsquo;s most trusted advisor, and his four sons, whose fates embody the forces tearing at the fabric of the nation. There is Tiekoro, who renounces his peoplersquo;s religion and embraces Islam; Siga, who defends tradition, but becomes a merchant; Naba, who is kidnapped by slave traders; and Malobali, who becomes a mercenary and halfhearted Christian. Based on actual events, Segu transports the reader to a fascinating time in history, capturing the earthy spirituality, religious fervor, and violent nature of a people and a growing nation trying to cope with jihads, national rivalries, racism, amid the vagaries of commerce.

"One dark night in Cape Town, Roselie's husband goes out for a pack of cigarettes and never comes back. Not only is she left with unanswered questions about his violent death but she is also left without any means of support. At the urging of her housekeeper and best friend, the new widow decides to take advantage of the strange gifts she has always possessed and embarks on a career as a clairvoyant. As Roselie builds a new life for herself and seeks the truth about her husband's murder, Caribbean author Maryse Conde crafts an exploration of post-apartheid South Africa. The Story of the Cannibal Woman is both contemporary and international, following the lives of an interracial, intercultural couple in New York City, Tokyo, and Capetown."--BOOK JACKET