Jeanne Duval, the ginger-colored entertainer, struggles with her lover poet Charles Baudelaire...

Mer, plantation slave and doctor, both hungers for and dreads liberation... and Thais, a dark-skinned beauty from Alexandria, is impelled to seek a glorious revelation-as Ezili, a being born of hope, unites them all.

Interweaving acts of brutality with passionate unions of spirit and flesh, this is a narrative that shocks, entertains, and dazzles-from an award-winning writer who dares to redefine the art of storytelling.