Island Beneath the Sea : a Novel

Library Journal: Zariet?, known as T?t?, is born a slave in Haiti, then called Saint-Domingue, in 1700. She is bought by Toulouse Valmorain, a young Frenchman whose ideals quickly disappear in the brutality of life on a sugar plantation. T?t? tenderly cares for Valmorain's son and, since she is her master's property, bears two of the master's children herself. She helps Valmorain and the children escape just as the bloody violence of the slave revolt reaches the plantation. They set sail for New Orleans, a raucous city where T?t? finds more family drama and, finally, love and freedom. VERDICT Confining Allende's trademark magic realism to the otherworldly solace T?t? finds in the island's voodoo, this timely and absorbing novel is another winning Allende story filled with adventure, vivid characters, and richly detailed descriptions of life in the Caribbean at that time. Sure to be popular with Allende's many fans. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 1/10.]?Leslie Patterson, Brown Univ. Lib., Providence