Education
After having graduated from high school, she was sent to Lycée Fénelon and Sorbonne in Paris, where she majored in English.
(In this beautifully crafted, Rashomon-like novel, Maryse ...)
In this beautifully crafted, Rashomon-like novel, Maryse Conde has written a gripping story imbued with all the nuances and traditions of Caribbean culture. 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. 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, Conde has constructed a Guadeloupean wake for Francis Sancher. Retaining the full color and vibrance of Conde's homeland, Crossing the Mangrove pays homage to Guadeloupe in both subject and structure.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385476337/?tag=2022091-20
( The year is 1797, and the kingdom of Segu is flourishin...)
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 king’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 people’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.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0670807281/?tag=2022091-20
(Inspiré par les tragiques événements de 1962, dans la Gui...)
Inspiré par les tragiques événements de 1962, dans la Guinée de Sékou Touré, "Heremakhonon" (expression signifiant "Attends le bonheur") est l'histoire d'une désillusion.Véronica est une Guadeloupéenne un peu perdue en quête d'identité. Partie à la recherche du passé africain, elle ne trouve que pauvreté, dictature et bourgeoisie corrompue. Ses démêlés sentimentaux traduisent bien son désenchantement. En choisissant d'aimer Ibrahima Sory, son "nègre avec aïeux" aux manières princières, Véronica s'aperçoit peu à peu qu'elle s'est trompée de camp. En réalité, Ibrahima a les mains sales du sang de son ami Saliou.Et c'est pour ne pas avoir à choisir entre l'amour et l'amitié, entre deux visions de l'Afrique, que Véronica choisit la fuite...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/2221085329/?tag=2022091-20
(Sequel to Guadeloupan author Conde's highly praised Segu ...)
Sequel to Guadeloupan author Conde's highly praised Segu , this historical novel trudges through the 19th-century tribal wars, Islamic conquest and French occupation of the African kingdom of Segu, situated on the Niger River in what is now Mali. The many characters here, identified by their kinship bonds, flank themselves around the heirs of the Traore family, nobles formerly close to the throne. Now cousins Muhammad and Olubunmi are caught in the jihad waged by the fanatical El-Hadj Omar, whose son Amadou eventually rules Segu. Conde trains close attention on the tenets of Islam and the local animistic religion it displaces before shifting the action to Jamaica, where Christians from Segu seek refuge. But the bloody Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865 dashes their hopes. Returning to Africa, the saga focuses on devout Omar and his young wife, Kadija, the next generation of Traores, as the Segu resist the French.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0670829811/?tag=2022091-20
(Conde depicts the Bambara of 1797, a kingdom in Africa fl...)
Conde depicts the Bambara of 1797, a kingdom in Africa flourishing before thecoming of Islam and slavery. The tale follows the Traore family, a noble clanentrusted by the king. The four Traore sons embody the contemporaneous forcestearing at the very fabric of the nation.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004P5OPIY/?tag=2022091-20
( The Last of the African Kings follows the wayward fortu...)
The Last of the African Kings follows the wayward fortunes of a noble African family. It begins with the regal Béhanzin, an African king who opposed French colonialism and was exiled to distant Martinique. In the course of this brilliant novel, Maryse Condé tells of Béhanzin’s scattered offspring and their lives in the Caribbean and the United States. A book made up of many characters and countless stories, The Last of the African Kings skillfully intertwines the themes of exile, lost origins, memory, and hope. It is set mainly in the Americas, from the Caribbean to modern-day South Carolina, yet Africa hovers always in the background.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0803263848/?tag=2022091-20
(Secrets et mensonges, est-ce le seul héritage que sa gran...)
Secrets et mensonges, est-ce le seul héritage que sa grand-mère, Nina, et sa mère, Reynalda, vont léguer à la narratrice ? Trois femmes, trois générations séparées bien qu'unies par le sang. Enfant abandonnée, Marie-Noëlle grandit à la Désirade, jusqu'au jour où sa mère l'a fait venir en France. Mère inconnue, terre inconnue. À Savigny-sur-Orge, elle se morfond dans une cité, sans jamais trouver sa place dans cette famille, pourtant la sienne. Commence alors pour elle une douloureuse quête sur la vérité de sa naissance.Elle interroge Nina et Reynalda. Leurs aveux sont affabulés, leurs demi-vérités ajoutent au mystère, ni l'une ni l'autre n'est disposée à livrer son histoire vraie.Si déguisées soit-elle, ces confidences font apparaître des femmes libres à tout prix, en lutte contre un destin qui veut les clouer : maternités non désirées, hommes non choisis, traditions frelatées d'un pays en rupture d'histoire. Long chemin, longue peine avant que, revenue à la Désirade, Marie-Noëlle ne conclut à la vanité des hantises familiales. Et vivre devient alors sa seule vérité.À travers de puissantes figures romanesques, c'est toute l'histoire des Antilles modernes qui se déploie ici, dans une langue qui associe la concision des grands Anglo-Saxons à la verve enchantée du créole.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1569472157/?tag=2022091-20
(The year is 1797, and the kingdom of Segu is flourishing,...)
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 king’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 people’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.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014025949X/?tag=2022091-20
(Veronica Mercier, a sophisticated Caribbean woman teachin...)
Veronica Mercier, a sophisticated Caribbean woman teaching and living in Paris, journeys to West Africa in pursuit of her "identity." There, she becomes involved with a prominent political figure, and must find her way among the often misleading guises of ambition, idealism, and violence. Conveying a mosaic of feelings (from childhood and adolescence in Guadeloupe, university days in Paris, and experiences in Africa), Heremakhonon "Welcome House" in Mande also invites the reader to enter the acrid world of modern Africa. French-language edition published in 1976.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0894108867/?tag=2022091-20
( This wild and entertaining novel expands on the true st...)
This wild and entertaining novel 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 Condé 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. CARAF Books:Caribbean and African Literature Translated from French This book has been supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agencY.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813927676/?tag=2022091-20
(A powerfully redemptive novel about one woman's search fo...)
A powerfully redemptive novel about one woman's search for herself--from Guadeloupe to France to the United States Ranelise is a cook in the small village of La Pointe in Guadeloupe where she rescues a teenage girl from suicide by drowning. The girl, Reynalda Titane, lives at the local jeweler's grand house where her mother, Nina, is a maid. Reynalda is pregnant and in a state of despair. Ranelise cares for her and the child, christened Marie-Noelle, but Reynalda soon flees to France, intent upon getting the education to allow her to rise above her mother's fate. Desirada is the story of Marie-Noelle and her quest to understand the mother who abandoned her, and discover the identity of her father, despite the opposing stories from her mother and her grandmother. It is also the story of generations of island women and the pursuit of a meaningful life despite a tainted personal history. Desirada was awarded the prestigious Prix Carbet de la Caraibe in 1998 given for the best book by a Caribbean author. It is Ms. Conde's twelfth novel.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1569472637/?tag=2022091-20
After having graduated from high school, she was sent to Lycée Fénelon and Sorbonne in Paris, where she majored in English.
Born as Maryse Boucolon at Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, she was the youngest of eight children. After graduating, she taught in Guinea, Ghana and Senegal. In 1985 Condé was awarded the Fulbright scholarship to teach in the United States and is now a professor at Columbia University in New York City.
In addition to her writings, Condé had a distinguished academic career.
In 2004 she retired from Columbia University as Professor Emerita of French. She had previously taught at the University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, the Sorbonne, The University of Virginia, and the University of Nanterre.
Condé"s novels explore racial, gender and cultural issues in a variety of historical eras and locales, including the Salem witch trials in. The 19th-century Bambara Empire of Mali in Segu (1980).
And the 20th-century building of the Panama Canal and its influence on increasing the West Indian middle class in "The tree of " (1992).
Her novels trace the relationships between African peoples and the diaspora, especially the Caribbean. She has taken considerable distance from most Caribbean literary movements, such as Negritude and Creolité, and has often focused on topics with strong feminist concerns. A radical activist in her work as well as in her personal life, Condé has admitted: "I could not write anything.. unless it has a certain political significance.
Who Slashed Celanire"s Throat also shows traces of Condé"s paternal great-grandmother.
(Sequel to Guadeloupan author Conde's highly praised Segu ...)
( This wild and entertaining novel expands on the true st...)
(A powerfully redemptive novel about one woman's search fo...)
(Secrets et mensonges, est-ce le seul héritage que sa gran...)
(Inspiré par les tragiques événements de 1962, dans la Gui...)
(In this beautifully crafted, Rashomon-like novel, Maryse ...)
(Veronica Mercier, a sophisticated Caribbean woman teachin...)
( The year is 1797, and the kingdom of Segu is flourishin...)
(The year is 1797, and the kingdom of Segu is flourishing,...)
(Conde depicts the Bambara of 1797, a kingdom in Africa fl...)
( The Last of the African Kings follows the wayward fortu...)
(Will be shipped from US. Brand new copy.)
(21x14x2cm. Broché.)