Contrary to the novel bearing the same title within Traversee de la mangrove which its mysterious author, Francis Sancher, will never complete, Maryse Conde's novel bears thoroughgoing witness to the stories of twenty individuals. Some become en-tangled and drown in the mangrove thicket, a metaphor for present-day Guadeloupe; others move toward an originative sun illuminating the way home to personal truths that they must discover by themselves. On another level this complex narrative, comprised of ten first-person and ten third-person accounts intricately interwoven between a narrative introduction entitled" Le serein"[dusk] and a closing chapter named" Le devant-jour"[dawn], furnishes the reader with a metaphoric map detailing all the death-inducing traps in the mangrove thicket and ways to avoid them. The path to life and freedom stretches out unencumbered to welcome the reader at book's end. The passage through the thick forest which surrounds us all has already claimed Fran-cis Sancher's life when the novel begins; at least six of the characters whose stories surface during the night of Sancher's wake slip further into their figurative graves. Other characters, however, succeed in extricating themselves from the obstacles that have thus far choked off life, and they move toward the light of a new day and the promise of collective salvation.

What are the obstacles and why do some continue to struggle toward life while others stagnate, resign themselves to solitude and exclusion, or beckon death? All casualties in a literal or figurative sense can be traced to social exclusion or parental rejection; all rebirths spring from an empathic connection between the individual char-acters and Francis Sancher, the dark sun at the center of this interconnected galaxy, who reflects the insights and wisdom which each of the characters possesses but is initially incapable of generating without him. A representative of the past, he sees into the souls of all but himself. His stories unlock the untold stories and secrets buried in his listeners. He becomes mentor, friend, and ally to those who come in contact with him, mirroring the thoughts and feelings comprising their inner lives and empowering them.