Guadeloupe (France) / All works
Novel
The Drifting of Spirits
La Grande Drive des esprits
Gisèle Pineau · 1993
Synopsis
On a hill at Haute-Terre, in Guadeloupe, a family seems to bear the weight of curses and spells. Léonce, son of Man Ninette and Sosthène, was born with a caul and a club foot; he wins the hand of the young Myrtha and settles with her on the hill. Years later, a young narrator who has come to photograph Creole cabins meets Barnabé, then Célestina, Léonce's daughter, who tell her in fragments the story of their family.
Context
The novel came out in 1993 from Le Serpent à plumes and received the Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe and the Grand prix des lectrices de Elle. It scrambles the chronology and alternates chapters told in the third person with those of the narrator. Critics have likened it to the marvellous realism of Caribbean literatures. Michael Dash translated it into English under the title The Drifting of Spirits, published in London by Quartet in 2000; the novel was reissued in French in 2010.
Who it is for
For entering the beliefs of rural Guadeloupe, between realism and the marvellous, through an entire family.
Prizes and reception
Two literary prizes on its publication, one of them a readers' prize; translated into English seven years later.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.