New York: Harper & Row, (1981) dj. Hardcover first edition - The author's second novel set in her native Guadaloupe. "Although that little island is the center of her story, her universe is a much larger one: her real subject is slavery and what comes with it. Ti Jean, the hero of this mythic tale, is a young black man who will explore his past by returning to Africa to find where he came from. In the tiny hamlet of Fond-Zombi a monstrous beast has blocked out the sunlight, throwing the island into eternal darkness, The beast symbolizes the white man, and the eternal suffering of slavery, from which no black can escape. Like a young Ulysses, Ti Jean sets out on a voyage of discovery: to find the beast which has determined his fate, to visit the dead, and to explore the past world of suffering in order to conquer the present one." Translated from the French by Barbara Bray. 270 pp.. Dust jacket illustration by Deborah Root Brague. Review copy with author's photograph laid in. ISBN: 0-060390026.