In less sure hands, this short, powerful novel, which won France's Grand Prix Litteraire de la Femme in 1986, might well have become merely an extended denunciation of a perverted and evil society. What makes it larger and richer are Ms. Conde's gift for storytelling and her unswerving focus on her characters, combined with her mordant sense of humor. -New York Times Book Review At once playful and searing, Conde's work critiques ostensibly white, male versions of history and literature by appropriating them. -Publishers Weekly Conde is one of the most prolific writers of the Caribbean and perhaps the most powerful woman's voice in contemporary literature of the Americas. Her interpretation of the Salem witch trials, recast from her own dreams, is a remarkable work of historical fiction that is a haunting and powerful reminder of the dangers of intolerance of differences. -Choice Maryse Conde's imaginative subversion of historical records forms a critique of contemporary American society and its ingrained racism and sexism that is as discomfiting as Arthur Miller's critique, based on the same historical material, of McCarthyism and 1950s America in his play `The Crucible.' -Boston Sunday Globe