miri

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miri is currently reading

Amour, colère et folie

by Marie Vieux-Chauvet

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Jul 21, 2026 08:18AM

miri rated a book really liked it

En attendant la montée des eaux

by Maryse Condé

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miri said: " "Dès que je suis rentré au pays, j'ai compris qu'il n'y avait qu'une seule manière d'expier. C'était de créer. Si notre peuple résiste à tant de calamités, parvient à vivre et survivre, c'est grâce à la magie de sus milliers de créatures, les uns con "Dès que je suis rentré au pays, j'ai compris qu'il n'y avait qu'une seule manière d'expier. C'était de créer. Si notre peuple résiste à tant de calamités, parvient à vivre et survivre, c'est grâce à la magie de sus milliers de créatures, les uns connus, les autres anonymes. Aux crimes des régimes successifs, aux vols et pillages de dictateurs, à toute cette sauvagerie, l'Art oppose la splendeur de la musique, de la peinture, de la sculpture et il anéantit la Laideur et le Mal."

What is the plot? Babakar, a doctor, "adopts" Anaïs, a baby girl, after her mother dies during childbirth. Morvar, who was in love with said mother but NOT the biological father of Anaïs, promises to show her her motherland: Haiti. The three of them make the journey to a nation of major political instability, violence, poverty, and trauma, thinking it will be a quick stop. However, the story orbits around three men's relationship with loss as collateral damage of systemic violence: Babakar, who is from Mali; Morvar, who fled Haiti; and Fouad, who is Palestinian.

Each chapter is a window to a very straightforward storytelling for each of them, as well as secondary characters. Something quite compelling for me was Babakar's mother, Thecla, who appears to him in dreams after her death, providing guidance, protection, but also some judgment on his life choices.

Mali, Lebanon, Palestine, and Haiti's histories are present and guide one of the major themes: ordinary people becoming casualties of political regimes. The ending was very touching, really displaying how solidarity works across nations that share trauma, displacement, and loss.

I read some really weak criticism about how the book portrays this transnational journey in which three men take care of a baby without inconveniences. That is so unnecessary. For me, Anaïs was more of a symbol (especially since Condé references it directly through Babakar's voice, saying her name was picked after Jacques Roumain's Gouverneurs de la Rosée, so this person should read that before dismissing her existence as a hole in the plot).

"Comme nous sommes compliqués ! pensa Babakar. Pour cette raison, nous ne serons jamais heureux." ...more "

Jul 20, 2026 05:17PM · see review