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The polished hoe / Austin Clarke.
Van Pelt Library PR9199.3.C526 P65 2003
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Clarke, Austin, 1934-2016.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Plantation owners.
- Women.
- West Indies.
- Women--West Indies--Fiction.
- Plantation owners--Fiction.
- Women murderers--Fiction.
- Women murderers.
- Plantation life--Fiction.
- Plantation life.
- West Indies--Fiction.
- Mistresses--Fiction.
- Mistresses.
- Genre:
- Historical fiction.
- Fiction.
- Physical Description:
- 462 pages ; 24 cm
- Edition:
- First edition.
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Amistad, 2003.
- Summary:
- Set in the post-colonial West Indies in the thirties and forties, The Polished Hoe unravels over the course of 24 hours, but spans the lifetime of one woman and the collective experience of a society characterized by slavery.
- When Mary-Mathilda, one of the most respected women of the island of Bimshire, confesses to a murder, the result is a shattering all-night vigil. The man she claims to have murdered is Mr. Belfeels, the powerful manager of the sugar plantation that dominates the villagers' lives, and for whom she has worked for more than 30 years as a field laborer, kitchen helper, and a maid. She was also Mr. Belfeels's mistress, kept in good financial status in the Great House on the plantation, and the mother of his only son, Wilberforce, a successful doctor on the island.
- Infused with Joycean overtones, Austin Clarke's new novel evokes the power of memory and the indomitable strength of the human spirit.
- ISBN:
- 0060555653
- OCLC:
- 52288744
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