Crossing the Mangrove - Maryse Conde

Crossing the Mangrove - Maryse CondeFrancis Sancher, a handsome outsider, loved by some and reviled by others, is found dead, face down in the mud on a path outside Riviere au Sel, a small village in Guadeloupe. No one is 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 reveal another piece of the mystery behind his life and death. Like pieces of an elaborate

Runcie tells the story of Marilyn’s illness and death – in all its moments of tragedy

*A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK*

Did someone see a monkey in the swimming pool

“Rich in both historical detail and ingenious twists” Sam Bourne (bestselling author of The Righteous Men)

weighing twice as much as a humpback whale and ten times more than Tyrannosaurus rex

a brutal crime that shakes a small community

justice and mutual need that underpins their relationship

images and words -- both remembered and recorded - remain

Ivan Grigoryevich has been in the Gulag for thirty years

it turns out

packed his guitar and boarded a train to London - did

He is also the widowed father of a most unusual nine-year-old