RETRO READS

VAL HENNESSY

CROSSING THE MANGROVE

by Maryse Conde (Penguin £9.99, 192 pp) EntEr a steamy tropical village in Guadeloupe, where underneath the swaying bamboo trees lies a dead body.

It’s Sancher, a charismatic vagabond newcomer who made many enemies — and who also made mothers of his many adoring girl fans.

At the wake, each person recalls Sancher’s secretiveness, telling various stories of colour prejudice, disillusionment, rum-sozzled wife-beatings, tarnished love, malignant forest spirits and ‘the smell of calamity’.

Mysterious, scary Sancher was loved and hated and many villagers had reason to wish him dead. But one common theme emerges from all their stories, and that is how small communities — all small communities — spark spite and fear of strangers.

Dazzling forest images — banana plantations, flashing parakeets, fluttering bats, wild orchids and seduction among the ferns — remain imprinted on the mind.