All Souls' Rising

by Madison Smartt Bell

Overview

"A serious historical novel that reads like a dream." --The Washington Post Book World

"One of the most spohisticated fictional treatments of the enduring themes of class, color, and freedom." --San Francisco Chronicle

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST
PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FINALIST 

This first installment of the epic Haitian trilogy brings to life a decisive moment in the history of race, class, and colonialism. The slave uprising in Haiti was a momentous contribution to the tide of revolution that swept over the Western world at the end of the 1700s. A brutal rebellion that strove to overturn a vicious system of slavery, the uprising successfully transformed Haiti from a European colony to the world’s first Black republic. From the center of this horrific maelstrom, the heroic figure of Toussaint Louverture–a loyal, literate slave and both a devout Catholic and Vodouisant–emerges as the man who will take the merciless fires of violence and vengeance and forge a revolutionary war fueled by liberty and equality.

Bell assembles a kaleidoscopic portrait of this seminal movement through a tableau of characters that encompass black, white, male, female, rich, poor, free and enslaved. Pulsing with brilliant detail, All Soul’s Rising provides a visceral sense of the pain, terror, confusion, and triumph of revolution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307472502
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/30/2008
Series:	Haitian Revolution Series , #1
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	560
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Madison Smartt Bell is the author of fourteen works of fiction, including The Stone That the Builder Refused; Master of the Crossroads; Save Me, Joe Louis; Dr. Sleep; Soldier's Joy; and Ten Indians. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland with his family and teaches at Goucher College.

Hometown:

Baltimore, Maryland

Date of Birth:

August 1, 1957

Place of Birth:

Nashville, Tennessee

Education:

A.B. in English, Princeton University, 1979; M.A. in English and creative writing, Hollins College, 1981

Website:

http://faculty.goucher.edu/mbell

What People are Saying About This

Harold Bloom

A beautifully composed, elegant, grand nightmare of a book. With it, Bell becomes as remarkable a historical novelist as we have in this country.

Gloria Meylor

I've known Madison Smartt Bell's work for quite a while and this is the best thing he's ever done -- and probably the best thing he'll ever do, which is my definition of a masterpiece. All Souls' Rising is simply breathtaking.

Robert Stone

Madison Smartt Bell's All Souls' Rising is a deceptively forthright examination of Caribbean history and of the murderous of race against race, which so often mocks humane ideals and sweeps them and their advocates ruthlessly aside. It is a major work, a triumph of both storytelling and of inspired historical analysis.

Editorial Reviews

Bell's tenth book, an intricately plotted historical novel about the slave revolt in Haiti, seems like a radical departure from his quintessentially modern tales about renegades and loners. But upon further reflection, we see how the story of Haiti meshes with Bell's concern with race relations and his fascination with apocalyptic conflicts. A southerner, Bell is attuned to the nuances of a culture stratified and poisoned by the byzantine politics of color. And he is able to re-create the tension and rage of the Haitian revolution, one of the bloodiest fights for freedom, with a joltingly visceral immediacy. We feel the tropical heat, hear the whine of mosquitoes, and smell the sickening fumes of burning sugarcane, blood, and fear. And we identify strongly with Bell's intrepid characters, men and women of all hues, caught in a confluence of forces that reveals their capacity for evil and compassion. There's Toussaint, an archetypal leader, wise and tough, and Doctor Hebert, a modest man of quiet strength who falls in love with Nanon, a beautiful mulatto. Nanon is only one of several courageous women who face madness and terror with surprising composure. Bell's writing has never been more powerful or passionate than it is here, in this electrifying saga.

Donna Seaman

As powerful as a hurricane. . . . All Souls’ Rising is really about us, our times, our prejudices, our race wars.” –The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“A serious historical novel that reads like a dream.” –The Washington Post Book World

“Rich and ambitious. . . . One of the most sophisticated fictional treatments of the enduring themes of class, color, and freedom.” –San Francisco Chronicle

“A powerful and intelligent novel. . . . Historical fiction in the monumental manner.” –The New York Times Book Review

“A beautifully composed, eloquent, grand nightmare of a book. With it, Bell becomes as remarkable a historical novelist as we have in this country.” –Harold Bloom

“A work of breathtaking stylistic expertise on a large scale, easily [Bell’s] most daring and accomplished novel.” —The Baltimore Sun

“A passionately engaged opus. All Souls’ Rising reflects both a sustained imaginative audacity and great intellectual resourcefulness.” —The New Yorker

“Remarkable. . . . All Souls’ Rising deserves to be read for its fictional representation of history and for its compelling characterizations. But its political importance should not be underestimated. . . . Bell’s excursion into revolutionary Haiti is the attempt of an undaunted novelist to stand face to face, as it were, with the prehistory of our own racial divisiveness. . . . An important book.” —The Oregonian

“I’ve known Madison Smartt Bell’s work for quite a while, and this is the best thing he’s ever done–and probably the best thing he’ll ever do, which is my definition of a masterpiece. All Souls’ Rising is simply breathtaking.” —Gloria Naylor

“The scope of this ambitious narrative is heroic. . . . Bell demonstrates that each race destroys itself in doing evil to the other.” —Chicago Tribune

“A major work, a triumph of both storytelling and inspired historical analysis.” —Robert Stone

“A vivid, visceral tale. . . . [Bell] has taken the events of eighteenth-century colonial Haiti and made them a prism for the most divisive issues confronting us today.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Bell’s luminous, intelligent novel . . . is magnificent. It restores my faith in the energy of American fiction.” —Barbara Probst Solomon

From the Publisher