Forbidden

by Williams, Tony

• ISBN13: 9781461000396
• ISBN10: 1461000394
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-04-21
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub

Summary

On the heels of the slave uprising in Haiti, the French Empire is rocked by another slave revolt, this time in its colony Saint Helen. The upheaval pits the slaves against the planters and plunges the colony into a racial war that keeps blacks and whites divided long after Emancipation.Born into this deeply polarized community where your status is determined by the colour of your skin, Christian Joseph, a mulatto, is looked up to because of his complexion and the fact that he was bought up by priests. His world is turned upside down when he discovers that he is the illegitimate offspring of a planter'¬"s son. To his dismay, he further discovers that his father is deceased and has left his entire estate to Christian'¬"s mother '¬ ; a poor black girl '¬ ; to the disbelief and outrage of many in the community, including the priests. This forces Christian to return to the village of his birth to try and uncover the secrets of his past.Along the way he befriends a young woman named April and falls in love with her. Unlike Christian who is proud of his Catholic upbringing and European heredity, April is a proud descendant of maroons. Christian finds it hard to reconcile his attraction to a black woman with the discomfort he feels around dark-skinned people and tension develops between them - all the more as April proceeds to challenge his view of life to try and force him to face up to the reality that he has African roots.