Segu: Maryse Condé (Penguin Modern Classics)

by Barbara Bray (Translator), Maryse Condé (Author), Barbara Bray (Translator), Maryse Condé (Author)

New
Paperback
2017
$11.88

The bestselling epic novel of family, treachery, rivalry, religious fervour and the turbulent fate of a royal African dynasty It is 1797 and the African kingdom of Segu, born of blood and violence, is at the height of its power. Yet Dousika Traore, the king's most trusted advisor, feels nothing but dread. Change is coming. From the East, a new religion, Islam. From the West, the slave trade. These forces will tear his country, his village and the lives of his beloved sons apart, in Maryse Conde's glittering epic. 'Rich and colorful and glorious. It sprawls over continents and centuries to find its way into the reader's heart' - Maya Angelou 'A stunning reaffirmation of Africa and its peoples... It's a starburst' - John A. Williams

Synopsis

The bestselling epic novel of family, treachery, rivalry, religious fervour and the turbulent fate of a royal African dynasty It is 1797 and the African kingdom of Segu, born of blood and violence, is at the height of its power. Yet Dousika Traore, the king's most trusted advisor, feels nothing but dread. Change is coming. From the East, a new religion, Islam. From the West, the slave trade. These forces will tear his country, his village and the lives of his beloved sons apart, in Maryse Conde's glittering epic. 'Rich and colorful and glorious. It sprawls over continents and centuries to find its way into the reader's heart' - Maya Angelou 'A stunning reaffirmation of Africa and its peoples... It's a starburst' - John A. Williams

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 512
Edition: 1
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Published: 06 Apr 2017
ISBN 10: 0241293510
ISBN 13: 9780241293515
Book Overview: The bestselling epic novel of family, treachery, rivalry, religious fervour and the turbulent fate of a people.

Media Reviews

Conde's story is rich and colorful and glorious. It sprawls over continents and centuries to find its way into the reader's heart -- Maya Angelou
A stunning reaffirmation of Africa and its peoples... It's a starburst -- John A. Williams
Maryse Conde is an extraordinary storyteller who brings the history of an African kingdom alive as vividly as if it existed today. Suspenseful, shocking, panoramic and hugely engrossing, the novel explores the politics and impact of external and domestic forces on nineteenth century west Africa through wonderfully realised characters and their complicated relationships. This is a great novel: unputdownable and unforgettable -- Bernardine Evaristo
Richly textured and detailed, this narrative, alternating between the lives of various characters, illuminates magnificently a little known historical period. Virtually every page glitters with nuggets of cultural fascination -- Howard Kaplan * Los Angeles Times *
A wondrous novel about a period of African history few other writers have addressed -- Charles L. Larson * New York Times Book Review *

Author Bio

Maryse Conde (Author) Maryse Conde was born at Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, in 1937 and spent most of her life in West Africa (Guinea, Ghana and Senegal), France and the US, where she taught at the University of California, Berkeley, UCLA and Columbia. The publication of her bestselling third novel, Segu (1984), established her pre-eminent position among Caribbean writers. She won Le Grand Prix Litteraire de la Femme in 1986 as well as Le Prix de L'Academie Francaise in 1988 and was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2015.