Stone That the Builder Refused - Madison Smartt Bell [1]
—The Washington Post Book World
“Breathtaking. . . . Bell has crafted such a profound page-turner, full of action and high drama. . . . A spectacular achievement.”
—The Miami Herald
“Remarkable. . . . Bell is a gifted craftsman. . . . He’s the sort of writer one can always turn to on faith; he seems incapable of writing an inelegant phrase. He captures the flavor of the island with depth and obvious love, including enough French and Creole for linguistic flavor, and interweaving English translations for clarity. The balance is close to perfect.”
— The Seattle Times
“Dazzling. . . . With assiduousness that does not flag even through the most detailed of battle scenes, Bell has taken this shadowy historical figure and revealed what is essential, heroic and lasting in his legacy. . . . A masterpiece.”
—The Boston Globe
“Powerful. . . . Bell manages both to render a readable narrative . . . and to use language with skill and beauty. . . . It’s hard to say anyone is writing better.”
—Houston Chronicle
“[Bell] has proved himself to be a master of historical fiction. . . . There is no question that this trilogy will make an indelible mark on literary history—one worthy of occupying the same shelf as Tolstoy’s War and Peace. . . . No matter what readers take away from it . . . Bell has triumphed.”
—The Baltimore Sun
“Breathtakingly successful on so many levels. . . . One wonders how the events of today will be drawn in two hundred years, if a writer should exist of Mr. Bell’s masterful abilities.”
—New York Post
“Riveting. . . . Bell’s formidable achievement not only makes impressive literature, but he has managed to turn military, political and colonial history into such delicious reading that I found myself still going at 4 AM, unwilling to put sleep before pleasure.”
—Annie Dawid, The Oregonian
“Triumphant. . . . By turns powerful and appalling. . . . Bell does a superb job with an incredible mass of material, but he never lets the material overwhelm the story. . . . [He] has created an amazing work of historical fiction.”
—The Tennessean
Moyse Dézo
Prann sa pou prinsip-O
M’ap poté dlo par kiyè pou plen kanari mwen
FOR ALL WHO WALK WITH THE SPIRIT OF TOUSSAINT
LOUVERTURE IN THE FIGHT FOR HAITI’S FREEDOM,
THEN AND NOW
Fort de Joux, France
October 1802
Toussaint sat hunched forward, consumed by his shadow, which the firelight threw huge and dark and shuddering behind him on the glistening wall. He was cold, mortally cold, with his ague. Drawing closer about his shoulders the ratty wool blanket he’d taken from his cot, he thought of adding to the fire one of the three or four chunks of wood that remained in the cell. But his trembling would not permit this action. His teeth chattered with the vibration of his chill, so that the bad teeth in his injured jawbone shot a bolt of pain to the very top of his skull. The white flash seared away everything. He gripped the blanket closer to his throat and dug the fingertips of his free hand around the swelling of his jaw, containing the pain, compressing it.
His trembling stopped. So, apparently, did the cold. He felt a moment of equilibrium. The blanket slipped down on his shoulders. Experimentally he spread both arms. The shadow loomed, and startled him; he tilted slightly in his chair.
Baron de la Croix. Lord of the Cemetery . . . In a voice not his own he seemed to hear the whispered phrase If it’s not your time, Ghede won’t take you.
He gathered his feet beneath him, feeling capable now of a balanced movement, but before he could rise, the fever swelled into the space the chill had vacated. The blanket slithered down around his waist. He heard his voice, harsh and distant: Tuez les responsables! A log broke in the fireplace, gnawed to a spindle by the small blue flames, and red coals scattered on the hearth. Kill everyone responsible!