We were beside ourselves. My head reeled, as if I’d had too much to drink. I took the novels out of the suitcase one by one, opened them, studied the portraits of the authors, and passed them on to Luo. Brushing them with the tips of my fingers made me feel as if my pale hands were in touch with human lives.
- an extract from "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress" by Dai Sijie (China, born 1954)
One of Nicola's 100 best books for inspiration in the 21st century!
The genre of the peasant novel in Haiti reaches back to the nineteenth century and this is one of the outstanding examples. Manuel returns to his native village after working on a sugar plantation in Cuba only to discover that it is stricken by a drought and divided by a family feud. He attacks the resignation endemic among his people by preaching the kind of political awareness and solidarity he has learned in Cuba. He goes on to illustrate his ideas in a tangible way by finding water and bringing it to the fields through the collective labor of the villagers. In this political fable, Roumain is careful to create an authentic environment and credible characters. Readers will be emotionally moved as well as ideologically persuaded.
Her cousin, Roselia, did her washing beside her. She talked continually, relating Fonds Rouge stories, those that were true and those she invented. She had a sharp tongue, that Roselia. But Annaise heard her without listening. Her thoughts were with Manuel.
Manuel, dear, she thought, and a warm wave swept over her, a weakness so sweet that she wanted to close her eyes as she had done last night when he kissed her and she felt herself drifting in a burning current whose every wave was a thrill to her body. He had covered her completely, he had become one with her, and she had left his mouth only long enough to emit that lacerating cry of the blood that gushed from the depths of her flesh and flowered into a happy sigh of deliverance.
I’m his woman, she dreamt, and she smiled. You had to come all the way back from Cuba to find me here. It’s a story that begins like a fairy tale, “Once upon a time.” But it’s a tale that ends happily, “I’m your wife!” Because, oh, God! some are full of death and disaster.
© Jacques Roumain 1944
English translation © the estate of Jacques Roumain 1947
