num_pages: 208
description: Francis Sancher—a handsome outsider, loved by some and reviled by others—is found dead, face down in the mud on a path outside Rivière au Sel, a small village in Guadeloupe.  None of the villagers are particularly surprised, since Sancher, a secretive and melancholy man, had often predicted an unnatural death for himself.  As the villagers come to pay their respects they each—either in a speech to the mourners, or in an internal monologue—reveal another piece of the mystery behind Sancher's life and death.  Like pieces of an elaborate puzzle, their memories interlock to create a rich and intriguing portrait of a man and a community. In the lush and vivid prose for which she has become famous, Condé has constructed a Guadeloupean wake for Francis Sancher.
language: English
title: Crossing the Mangrove
titlecomplete: Crossing the Mangrove
genres: 20th Century, Literature, School, Literary Fiction, Classics, Novels, France, Fiction, Contemporary, Mystery
ratings_count: 1695
places: Guadeloupe
publisher: Anchor