num_pages: 344
description: In the capital of a Caribbean island, the BLACK FAUNS -- Mamitz, Martha, Estelle, Christophine, Ma Christine, Miriam and Ethelrida -- wash clothes for a living in the intimacy of their barrack yard. It is the 1930s. In two facing rows of rooms, each room a habitation, and separated by the expanse of communal yard, the women are quarrelsome, supportive and reflective, tender and fierce with one another. Memories and bitterness are green.Ma Christine with her obeah and speechifying about her head husband, Miriam, the objective level-headed philosopher voraciously learned in her insights of the world; Ethelrida, bristling with fire. Mamitz, secret but smart and ruthless in her determination to survive; and Martha, in fear of her shadow concealing deep springs of passion and love. It is Martha's love affairs, first with Estelle, and then with Snakey, Ma Christine's son, which finally lead to murder and the destruction of the yard community.
language: English
title: Black Fauns
titlecomplete: Black Fauns
ratings_count: 5
publisher: New Beacon Books