Mamzelle Dragonfly - Tapa dura

"Raphae l Confiant has incontestably become a principal character in French literary history. One is struck by the luminous intelligence of his certain analysis, by the wit of his dialogue, by the lyric flight." --"Le Monde"

A tree cannot keep secrets because its roots discreetly meet those of other trees and share its thoughts. Adelise, a young girl trapped working in the cane fields of Martinique, keeps confidence with the flowering mangrove in her backyard. Her strict and watchful mother says Adelise is a dragonfly, refusing to learn that life is not a game. When she is transplanted to the dangerous and politically restive capital, Fort-de-France, her aunt introduces her to the unsavoury business of nightlife among the Mulatto elite, and Adelise comes to rely even more on her elaborate system of wistful detachment from her body.