Crossing the Mangrove

Crossing the Mangrove (1995) by Maryse Condé was originally published in French as Traversée de la Mangrove. It was translated to English by her husband Richard Philcox. Told from multiple perspectives, the novel opens with a mystery—that of Francis Sancher’s murder. As characters gather to speak at Sancher’s wake, they reveal his impact on the village of Rivière au Sel (“Salty River”), as well as why he returned to the village of his ancestors. While the murder is never solved, the novel thoroughly interrogates class, race, and gender.

Maryse Condé is the renowned author of over 20 novels and numerous plays and essays written in French. Her work explores the legacy of slavery in the African Diaspora, with a focus on culture and gender in the Caribbean. She was born in Guadeloupe, a former French colony that was declared a region of France (or a French Overseas department) in 1946, making Guadeloupean people French and European Union (EU) citizens. Condé has received prestigious French and international literary awards, including the 2018 New Academy Prize in Literature (or Alternative Nobel Prize).

This guide is based on the 1995 Anchor Books/Doubleday paperback edition of the text, translated by Richard Philcox. It also references the original 1989 Folio paperback edition.

Content Warning: The text depicts racism (including colorism, slurs, and outdated terminology), ableism, anti-gay bias, abortion attempts without the mother’s consent, misogyny, and incest, and discusses sati (a form of suicide), sexual assault (including a case involving an underage character), death by childbirth, child death, enslavement, torture, and murder.

Plot Summary

Crossing the Mangrove is divided into three sections (“Dusk,” “The Night,” and “First Light”) that correspond to the overnight wake for a murdered Cuban man, Francis Sancher. “Dusk” opens with retired schoolteacher Léocadie Timothée, who stumbles upon Sancher’s corpse when she takes a different path home. The third-person omniscient narrator sets up the novel’s conflicts, the first being Sancher’s murder; the second conflict comprises his intimate relationships with two young women, Vilma and Mira, both of whom he impregnated. These women and other villagers of Rivière au Sel (“Salty River”) contextualize the novel’s Guadeloupean setting (a Creole or syncretic society of African, Indian, European, North American, and South American influence in the Caribbean) through first or third-person reflections on Sancher at his wake.

In “The Night,” each chapter opens with a monologue delivered at Sancher’s wake. The first person Sancher met in Rivière au Sel was postman Moïse (or Mosquito). In the past, Moïse recognizes Sancher is an outsider because of his Spanish accent and inability to understand basic Antillean Creole (which draws from French, Carib, English, and African languages). While Sancher is unafraid of the curse of the local Alexis house, which he buys and renovates with Moïse’s help, he is haunted at night by the crimes of his ancestors. Moïse is also revealed to be an outsider, even though he has lived in Rivière au Sel his entire life: His mother’s Chinese heritage makes him the target of racial slurs and rejection, especially by women. Sexuality is weaponized for seduction and self-defense by these women, with the exception of two older Black women—Mama Sonson, a clairvoyant, and Léocadie Timothée, a retired schoolteacher. The younger Vilma and Mira have little else but beauty to protect themselves, but it makes them vulnerable to both jealous women and vicious men. While rumors circulate that Sancher sexually assaulted Mira, it becomes clear that both she and Vilma played along with his seduction (which contextualizes these encounters, but doesn’t excuse them, as Vilma is underage). Meanwhile, Mira’s stepmother Dinah has an affair with Sancher, and another woman, Rosa, is incapable of loving her daughter Vilma due to her darker skin. Another mother, Dodose, believes herself at fault for her son Sonny’s brain damage, as she cheated on her husband with a French man.

As for Sancher himself, he returned to Rivière au Sel—the site of his ancestors’ crimes—due to believing Sancher men are cursed to die in their early 50s. While these crimes are never explicitly stated, the novel alludes to enslavement, torture, and murder. While some characters hate Sancher, others are sympathetic. His friend Emile, a historian, plans to immortalize him in a book, and even the “zombie” Xantippe whom Sancher feared vows to leave him in peace. The novel ends with “First Light,” the rise of the sun—signaling the end of Sancher’s wake and a new day for the villagers.