Island Beneath The Sea - Softcover

Isabel Allende

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1554688094 ISBN 13: 9781554688098

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2010

Synopsis

Born a slave 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 loas 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. It will be eight years before he brings home a bride -- but marriage, too, proves more difficult than he imagined. And Valmorain remains dependent on the services of his teenaged slave.

Spanning four decades,The Island beneath the Seais the moving story of the intertwined lives of Tété and Valmorain, and of one woman's determination to find love amid loss, to offer humanity though her own has been battered, and to forge her own identity in the cruellest of circumstances.

About this title

About the Author:

Isabel Allende is the author of twelve works of fiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Maya’s Notebook, Island Beneath the Sea, Inés of My Soul, Daughter of Fortune, and a novel that has become a world-renowned classic, The House of the Spirits. Born in Peru and raised in Chile, she lives in California.

From AudioFile:

This story of prostitution, colonialism, and a woman's quest to live independently is told with feeling by S. Epatha Merkerson. Her slightly deep voice lends the novel a mythical quality, illustrating the spirit of the times in the late eighteenth century. Merkerson deals adeptly with the French names scattered throughout the text without breaking the rhythm of the story. She also varies her pace, speeding up and slowing down to indicate shifts in viewpoint from female to male characters. The different emphases also ensure that listeners can differentiate the wide-ranging cast throughout the span of story, which includes two main characters as well as several who appear only in brief scenes. M.R. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1554688094
• ISBN 13: 9781554688098
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 437