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Island Beneath the Sea - Isabel Allende, Margaret Sayers Peden
Island Beneath the Sea
by: (author) (author)
4.21 140
Born on the island of Saint-Domingue, ZaritÉ—known as TÉtÉ—is the daughter of an African mother she never knew and one of the white sailors who brought her into bondage. Though her childhood is one of brutality and fear, TÉtÉ finds solace in the traditional rhythms of African drums and the voodoo... show more
Born on the island of Saint-Domingue, ZaritÉ—known as TÉtÉ—is the daughter of an African mother she never knew and one of the white sailors who brought her into bondage. Though her childhood is one of brutality and fear, TÉtÉ finds solace in the traditional rhythms of African drums and the voodoo loa she discovers through her fellow slaves. When twenty-year-old Toulouse Valmorain arrives on the island in 1770, it’s with powdered wigs in his trunks and dreams of financial success in his mind. But running his father’s plantation, Saint Lazare, is neither glamorous nor easy. Although Valmorain purchases young TÉtÉ for his bride, it is he who will become dependent on the services of his teenaged slave. Against the merciless backdrop of sugarcane fields, the lives of TÉtÉ and Valmorain grow ever more intertwined. When the bloody revolution of Toussaint Louverture arrives at the gates of Saint Lazare, they flee the brutal conditions of the French colony, soon to become Haiti, for the raucous, free-wheeling enterprise of New Orleans. There TÉtÉ finally forges a new life, but her connection to Valmorain is deeper than anyone knows and not easily severed. With an impressive richness of detail, and a narrative wit and brio second to none, Allende crafts the riveting story of one woman’s determination to find love amid loss, to offer humanity though her own has been so battered, and to forge a new identity in the cruelest of circumstances.
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Format: hardcover
ISBN: 9780061988240 (0061988243)
ASIN: 61988243
Publisher: Harper
Pages no: 457
Edition language: English
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Community Reviews
Feminism in Cold Storage
Feminism in Cold Storage rated it
5.0 Island Beneath the Sea
This is an astounding story that revolves around the life of Zarite, a slave on the island of Saint-Domingue.With a total length just under 18 hours, this is a bit more of an audiobook than I typically prefer to bite off, but the story is well worth the time it takes to read or listen to. It probabl...
cczarneckikernus
cczarneckikernus rated it
5.0 Island Beneath the Sea
On my shelves for awhile.
altheaann
altheaann rated it
Duh!For a great portion of this book, I kept trying to figure out why the characters seemed so very, very familiar... almost as if I'd read the book before, years ago. But it was only published two years ago, and my memory isn't quite that bad! I even looked on the internet to try to find out if any...
EricaO
EricaO rated it
3.0 Island Beneath the Sea
As a story, this book was decent. As an Allende novel, it was meh. Is there a term for "lifelong vignette"? If so, that's what this is. It's interesting enough. I don't know much about the history of Haiti or the early years of New Orleans to vouch for the historical accuracy of the novel, though I ...
A Book and A Review #2
A Book and A Review #2 rated it
4.0 Island Beneath the Sea
This book was poetic, beautifully written in its' descriptors and simply AWESOME! Def. an author I will check out more. The story was heart-breaking but I simply could not pull my eyes away from it.
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