Tusculane de Ciceron Sur Le Mepris de La Mort (1732)

A compellling fictional tale set in the contemporary Caribean, this is the second episode of a trilogy that continues unraveling the mystical saga of Azucar Ferrand St. Jacques, the enchanting young girl from the batey –the squalid quarters that house the sugarcane workers on the sugar plantation – who is forced early into suddenly womanhood. She is still plagued by agonizing efforts to find an escape from the island’s historic patterns of exploitation. Only this time the exploitation is cleverly packaged in a sophisticated new form: island tourism.

Azucar, now the aggressively smart regional director of a luxury tourist complex, struggles to resist various oppressions and somehow liberate herself from her own haunting demons from a violent past. She must also consider the plight of an increasingly large and threatening community of exploited workers ensnared in the far reaching tentacles of the downside of globalization. This is a novel about the arduous process of renegotiating the dialogues of marginalized individuals who are determined to make their voices heard by the world.