The grand queen, the empress, of Caribbean literature
- Fiammetta Rocco, Guardian
Maryse Condé's prodigious fictional universes are founded on a radical and generative disregard for boundaries based on geography, religion, history, race, and gender
- Angela Y. Davis,
A story of life in all its flavours . . . a fluid, mobile narrative, passing easily from person to person. Fascinating and beautiful
- John Self, The Observer
A masterly storyteller
New York Times Book Review
A treasure of world literature, writing from the center of the African diaspora with brilliance and a profound understanding of all humanity
- Russell Banks,
Condé writes elegantly in a style that beautifully survives translation from the French. . . She gives readers a flavor of the French and Creole stew that is the Guadeloupan tongue. In so doing, Conde conveys the many subtle distinctions of color, class, and language that made up this society
Chicago Tribune