Maryse Condé (1937-2024): Considered the Grande Dame of Caribbean Literature, she was born in Guadeloupe in 1937 as the youngest of eight siblings. She taught Francophone Literature at Colombia University in New York, and lived there for many years. She has also lived in various West African countries, most notably in Mali, where she gained inspiration for her worldwide bestseller Segu, for which she was awarded the African Literature Prize and several other respected French awards. Condé was awarded the 2018 New Academy Prize (or “Alternative Nobel”) in Literature as well as the 2021 Prix mondial Cino Del Duca for her oeuvre. She also received the Grand-Croix de l’Ordre national du Mérite from President Emmanuel Macron in 2020. She conquered the hearts of many readers in English-language territories with her novels The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana and Waiting for the Waters to Rise, longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature in the US.
Praise for Segu
“The most significant novel about black Africa published in many a
year.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Condé . . . is the great novelist of the Afro-Atlantic world, and
Segu, her masterpiece, is the mother of diaspora epics. . . .
Despite its magisterial scope, Segu is also warm and gossipy. . . .
Condé has a wicked sense of humor [and] excels at evoking the
tensions of a world in flux.” —The New Yorker
“Exotic, richly textured and detailed, this narrative, alternating
between the lives of various characters, illuminates magnificently
a little known historical period. Virtually every page glitters
with nuggets of cultural fascination.” —Los Angeles Times
“A wondrous novel about a period of African history few other
writers have addressed. . . . Much of the novel’s radiance comes
from the lush description of a traditional life that is both exotic
and violent.” —Charles L. Larson, The New York Times Book
Review
“Exotic, richly textured and detailed, this narrative, alternating
between the lives of various characters, illuminates magnificently
a little-known historical period. Virtually every page glitters
with nuggets of cultural fascination.” —Los Angeles Times
“With the dazzling storytelling skills of an African griot, Maryse
Condé has written a rich, fast-paced saga of a great kingdom during
the tumultuous period of the slave trade and the coming of Islam.
Segu is history as vivid and immediate as today. It has restored a
part of my past that has long been missing.” —Paule Marshall
“Segu is an overwhelming accomplishment. It injects into the
density of history characters who are as alive as you and I.
Passionate, lusty, greedy, they are in conflict with themselves as
well as with God and Mammon. Maryse Condé has done us all a
tremendous service by rendering a history so compelling and
exciting. Segu is a literary masterpiece I could not put down.”
—Louise Meriwether
“A stunning reaffirmation of Africa and its peoples as set down by
others whose works have gone unnoticed. Ms. Condé not only backs
them up, but provides new insights as well. . . . Segu has its own
dynamic. It’s a starburst.” —John A. Williams
Praise for Maryse Condé
“[A] giant of literature . . . We can follow not just the history
of the Caribbean, but the African diaspora in her oeuvre.” —Edwidge
Danticat
“She describes the ravages of colonialism and the post-colonial
chaos in a language which is both precise and overwhelming. In her
stories the dead live close to the living in a world where gender,
race, and class are constantly turned over in new constellations.”
—Jury citation, New Academy Prize in Literature
“Condé is a born storyteller.” —Publishers Weekly
“Maryse Condé is a great storyteller, she has managed to explore
very political issues—gender, race, colonialism, class,
postcolonial issues, slavery—and she did that a long time ago, and
she did that in a variety of historical and geographical
backgrounds. For me, she is a pioneer for us Afro-descendent women
writers. She bridges gaps among the whole Black diaspora.” —BEATA
UMUBYEYI MAIRESSE
“She is part of our Black family … She has helped us to see
ourselves reflected in so many different mirrors that she holds for
us … She is a force of nature, she is an inspiration to women … She
has given us so much.”—BISI ADJAPON
“There are lots of things I like about Maryse Condé’s writing, but
one thing that gets me every time is the lyricism of her
prose.”—CHIKA UNIGWE
“It’s inspiring to see that Condé gives words and meaning to our
histories—African histories, Black histories, Black lives.”—CLARICE
GARGARD
“Maryse Condé has given me the freedom to call myself woman.”
—EDWIGE-RENÉE DRO
“Maryse Condé is an African literary elder … she reminds us
Anglophone readers that there is a world of Francophone literature
out there that we are missing out on. I would like to point out
that Maryse Condé built a bridge between Africa and the Caribbean
world … There’s this thing she does where she holds the reader’s
hand, and the reader gets comfortable … and somewhere along the way
you get smacked in the face.” —JENNIFER NANSUBUGA MAKUMBI
“Her writing is so rich. It’s so vibrant. But, as well, you are
learning things all the time. She’s just a wonderful storyteller.
She’s a masterful storyteller. But she also has a sense of realism
in her work. It’s just wonderful—it’s an experience, reading her
work.” —KADIJA GEORGE
“Maryse Condé shows African lives in a way that’s rich, that’s
glamorous, and in a way that shows the characters to be as flawed
as they really are … It’s very rare to come across a writer of
fiction who puts so much of their personal story into their work …
Her books challenge one’s perceptions of oneself, which I think is
one of the greatest things that Miss Maryse Condé does for the
Black person. When you read her work you are forced to reexamine
the definition of your own Blackness.” —LOLA SHONEYIN
“Her work really links the questions that face Black people all
over the world … showing you the conditions that the Black person
faces in the world.” —MOLARA WOOD
“I love the honesty … she doesn’t go with the flow. It’s very easy
for someone of her generation to have gone along with the tide of
African socialism or Négritude, that sort of thing, but she’s
always been honest about any misgivings or disinterest in certain
currents of thinking and culture. She’s very original in that
respect.”—NOO SARO-WIWA
“I think she embodies the world. She belongs to the world … the
breadth of her global experience, at a time when we didn’t speak
about Black women as belonging to the world is remarkable.”
—SISONKE MSIMANG
“What I like is that she’s honest. I think she has confidence in
her readers and lets them think for themselves, and that I
appreciate a lot.” —VÉRONIQUE TADJO
“Maryse Condé has managed to successfully bridge the gap between
Africa and its diaspora. If nothing else, reading her work helps us
get into the mindset to know about our brothers and sisters from
the diaspora.” —ZUKISWA WANNER
“Maryse Condé is a treasure of world literature, writing from the
center of the African diaspora with brilliance and a profound
understanding of all humanity.”—RUSSELL BANKS
“Maryse Condé is the grande dame of Caribbean literature.” —NCRV
Gids
This family saga is set in the warlike kingdom of Segu (roughly present-day Mali) in the late 19th century. Conde is a born storyteller, commented PW, but the novel's ``cumulative effect is marred . . . by such a bewildering array of characters and such a density of cultural detail that the storyline becomes both sluggish and hard to follow.'' (May)
Praise for Segu
"The most significant novel about black Africa published in many a
year." -The New York Times Book Review
"Conde . . . is the great novelist of the Afro-Atlantic world, and
Segu, her masterpiece, is the mother of diaspora epics. . .
. Despite its magisterial scope, Segu is also warm and
gossipy. . . . Conde has a wicked sense of humor [and] excels at
evoking the tensions of a world in flux." -The New Yorker
"Exotic, richly textured and detailed, this narrative, alternating
between the lives of various characters, illuminates magnificently
a little known historical period. Virtually every page glitters
with nuggets of cultural fascination." -Los Angeles Times
"A wondrous novel about a period of African history few other
writers have addressed. . . . Much of the novel's radiance comes
from the lush description of a traditional life that is both exotic
and violent." -Charles L. Larson, The New York Times Book
Review
"Exotic, richly textured and detailed, this narrative, alternating
between the lives of various characters, illuminates magnificently
a little-known historical period. Virtually every page glitters
with nuggets of cultural fascination." -Los Angeles Times
"With the dazzling storytelling skills of an African griot, Maryse
Conde has written a rich, fast-paced saga of a great kingdom during
the tumultuous period of the slave trade and the coming of Islam.
Segu is history as vivid and immediate as today. It has
restored a part of my past that has long been missing." -Paule
Marshall
"Segu is an overwhelming accomplishment. It injects
into the density of history characters who are as alive as you and
I. Passionate, lusty, greedy, they are in conflict with themselves
as well as with God and Mammon. Maryse Conde has done us all a
tremendous service by rendering a history so compelling and
exciting. Segu is a literary masterpiece I could not put
down." -Louise Meriwether
"A stunning reaffirmation of Africa and its peoples as set
down by others whose works have gone unnoticed. Ms. Conde not only
backs them up, but provides new insights as well. . . . Segu
has its own dynamic. It's a starburst." -John A.
Williams
Praise for Maryse Conde
"[A] giant of literature . . . We can follow not just the history
of the Caribbean, but the African diaspora in her oeuvre." -Edwidge
Danticat
"She describes the ravages of colonialism and the post-colonial
chaos in a language which is both precise and overwhelming. In her
stories the dead live close to the living in a world where gender,
race, and class are constantly turned over in new constellations."
-Jury citation, New Academy Prize in Literature
"Conde is a born storyteller." -Publishers Weekly
"Maryse Conde is a great storyteller, she has managed to explore
very political issues-gender, race, colonialism, class,
postcolonial issues, slavery-and she did that a long time ago, and
she did that in a variety of historical and geographical
backgrounds. For me, she is a pioneer for us Afro-descendent women
writers. She bridges gaps among the whole Black diaspora."
-BEATA UMUBYEYI MAIRESSE
"She is part of our Black family ... She has helped us to see
ourselves reflected in so many different mirrors that she holds for
us ... She is a force of nature, she is an inspiration to women ...
She has given us so much."-BISI ADJAPON
"There are lots of things I like about Maryse Conde's writing, but
one thing that gets me every time is the lyricism of her
prose."-CHIKA UNIGWE
"It's inspiring to see that Conde gives words and meaning to our
histories-African histories, Black histories, Black
lives."-CLARICE GARGARD
"Maryse Conde has given me the freedom to call myself woman."
-EDWIGE-RENEE DRO
"Maryse Conde is an African literary elder ... she reminds us
Anglophone readers that there is a world of Francophone literature
out there that we are missing out on. I would like to point out
that Maryse Conde built a bridge between Africa and the Caribbean
world ... There's this thing she does where she holds the reader's
hand, and the reader gets comfortable ... and somewhere along the
way you get smacked in the face." -JENNIFER NANSUBUGA
MAKUMBI
"Her writing is so rich. It's so vibrant. But, as well, you are
learning things all the time. She's just a wonderful storyteller.
She's a masterful storyteller. But she also has a sense of realism
in her work. It's just wonderful-it's an experience, reading her
work." -KADIJA GEORGE
"Maryse Conde shows African lives in a way that's rich, that's
glamorous, and in a way that shows the characters to be as flawed
as they really are ... It's very rare to come across a writer of
fiction who puts so much of their personal story into their work
... Her books challenge one's perceptions of oneself, which I think
is one of the greatest things that Miss Maryse Conde does for the
Black person. When you read her work you are forced to reexamine
the definition of your own Blackness." -LOLA SHONEYIN
"Her work really links the questions that face Black people all
over the world ... showing you the conditions that the Black person
faces in the world." -MOLARA WOOD
"I love the honesty ... she doesn't go with the flow. It's very
easy for someone of her generation to have gone along with the tide
of African socialism or Negritude, that sort of thing, but she's
always been honest about any misgivings or disinterest in certain
currents of thinking and culture. She's very original in that
respect."-NOO SARO-WIWA
"I think she embodies the world. She belongs to the world ... the
breadth of her global experience, at a time when we didn't speak
about Black women as belonging to the world is remarkable."
-SISONKE MSIMANG
"What I like is that she's honest. I think she has confidence in
her readers and lets them think for themselves, and that I
appreciate a lot." -VERONIQUE TADJO
"Maryse Conde has managed to successfully bridge the gap between
Africa and its diaspora. If nothing else, reading her work helps us
get into the mindset to know about our brothers and sisters from
the diaspora." -ZUKISWA WANNER
"Maryse Conde is a treasure of world literature, writing from the
center of the African diaspora with brilliance and a profound
understanding of all humanity."-RUSSELL BANKS
"Maryse Conde is the grande dame of Caribbean literature." -NCRV
Gids
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