Heremakhonon [a novel]
  • 1982/176 pages
  • Three Continents Press

Heremakhonon [a novel]

Maryse Condé, translated by Richard Philcox
Paperback: $17.95
ISBN: 978-0-89410-886-0

Veronica Mercier, a sophisticated Caribbean woman teaching and living in Paris, journeys to West Africa in pursuit of her "identity." There, she becomes involved with a prominent political figure—and must find her way among the often misleading guises of ambition, idealism, and violence.

Conveying a mosaic of feelings (from childhood and adolescence in Guadeloupe, university days in Paris, and experiences in Africa), Heremakhonon—"Welcome House" in Mande—also invites the reader to enter the acrid world of modern Africa. French-language edition published in 1976.

Guadeloupian novelist Maryse Condé (1934−2024) was the 2018 winner of The New Academy prize, that year's alternative prize to the Nobel prize for literature. Her novels, plays, and short stories have won wide acclaim in both English and French. Richard Philcox is a translator of literary fiction.