Waiting for the Waters to Rise
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- €10.99
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- €10.99
Publisher Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE
FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOKS of 2021
By the winner of the 2018 Alternative Nobel Prize in Literature
“At once touching and devastating, the book explores the effects of loss and grief on a personal, communal, and national level, but does so with a personal voice that feels more like a having a conversation than reading a book…it is a novel that cements Condé as a literary giant who beautifully chronicles the humanity found in some of the most violent places in the world.” —GABINO IGLESIAS, NPR
Babakar is a doctor living alone, with only the memories of his childhood in Mali. In his dreams, he receives visits from his blue-eyed mother and his ex-lover Azelia, both now gone, as are the hopes and aspirations he’s carried with him since his arrival in Guadeloupe. Until, one day, the child Anaïs comes into his life, forcing him to abandon his solitude. Anaïs’s Haitian mother died in childbirth, leaving her daughter destitute—now Babakar is all she has, and he wants to offer this little girl a future. Together they fly to Haiti, a beautiful, mysterious island plagued by violence, government corruption, and rebellion. Once there, Babakar and his two friends, the Haitian Movar and the Palestinian Fouad, three different identities looking for a more compassionate world, begin a desperate search for Anaïs’s family.
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Condé's intense latest (after The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana) follows a Malian obstetrician living in the French department of Guadeloupe whose life is upended when he learns an undocumented Haitian immigrant has died during labor, leaving behind an infant girl. Dr. Babakar Traoré Jr., long plagued by the memories of those he's lost—including his mother and his wife—adopts Reinette Ovide's child and names her Anaïs, regarding her as "the newfound spring that will irrigate my arid existence." But Babakar soon discovers Reinette's dying wish was for her daughter to grow up in Haiti, where Reinette's sister, Estrella, still lives. Disheartened but determined to honor Reinette's wish, Babakar sets out for Haiti. There, while accompanied by Reinette's Haitian ex-lover Movar and mysterious hotel owner Fouad, he bears witness to the ravaging cycles of violence and prejudice that have long fractured the Caribbean nation. Condé puts forth the secrets and histories of a fascinating cast, producing a timeless exploration of the wounds that emerge—and linger—when people lose those who mean the most to them, be it their family, friends, or country. This faithful portrayal of grief and displacement is tough to forget.
