From the winner of the New Academy Prize in Literature (the
alternative to the Nobel Prize) and critically acclaimed author of the
classic historical novel Segu, Maryse Condé has pieced together the
life of her maternal grandmother to create a moving and profound
novel.
Maryse Condé's personal journey of discovery and revelation becomes ours
as we learn of Victoire, her white-skinned mestiza grandmother who
worked as a cook for the Walbergs, a family of white Creoles, in the
French Antilles.
Using her formidable skills as a storyteller, Condé describes her
grandmother as having "Australian whiteness for the color of her
skin...She jarred with my world of women in Italian straw bonnets and
men necktied in three-piece linen suits, all of them a very black shade
of black. She appeared to me doubly strange."
Victoire was spurred by Condé's desire to learn of her family history,
resolving to begin her quest by researching the life of her grandmother.
While uncovering the circumstances of Victoire's unique life story,
Condé also comes to grips with a haunting question: How could her own
mother, a black militant, have been raised in the Walberg's home, a
household of whites?
Creating a work that takes you into a time and place populated with
unforgettable characters that inspire and amaze, Condé's blending of
memoir and imagination, detective work and storytelling artistry, is a
literary gem that you won't soon forget.
