ينطوي هذا الكتاب، سهل التناول، على مفاتيح ثمينة تمكِّن القرَّاء من استكشاف حرٍّ لأكثر القضايا إلحاحاً في حياتهم. «واحد من أعظم مفكّري العصر». الدالاي لاما.
Marie Noël does not know who her father is, nor does she know why her mother abandoned her immediately after her birth and left her in the care of Ranleys, nor does she know what prompted this mother to send a letter ten years later demanding her daughter.
The girl travels into the unknown, living with an emotionally cold mother, tormented by memories of the past. After she grows up, she goes to Boston to complete her studies, and marries an innovative jazz musician, while the question, “Who am I? And who is my family?” continues to haunt her in all the places she lives, and so she seeks to understand what happened before she was born, but a series of dark secrets... And the elusive facts are faced.
In this novel, which won the Prix Carbet de la Caraibe, Maryse Conde writes a tale of lost love and unwanted motherhood, capturing the voice of the Caribbean diaspora with grace and sweetness.
With every meter that Rudy passed, his resistance to the influence of the fortune teller’s words became more intense, but at the same time, the fortune teller’s words became more deeply rooted in his soul and mind. Although he did not admit it, the fortune teller's words had completely controlled him. “Indeed, what knowledge do we, the inhabitants of this vile grain of dust called the Earth, claim to say, ‘This is possible and this is not possible?’ If we were merely irrational beings, we would say that we were created as a result of certain interactions between different chemical elements, such as mushrooms, algae, and others. But where does the soul come from and where does it go?” Do you go? And the mind and feelings? It is impossible for a bone or muscle in my body to feel love or hatred or to think and make a decision. All of this is carried by an energy that resides in my body, an energy that is stronger and bigger than me. It does not even reveal to me who it is or what it is made of I am just a dead battery for this energy, what a worthless piece of junk I am, but why should I accept that the fortune teller’s words are true? He, too, is just a piece of junk like me! These thoughts were fighting inside Rudy, and he did not know which idea was victorious over the other
