The plot moves slowly in the beginning as the characters are established. Allende adds numerous cast members who all play vital roles in Tété's future. Valmorain traps Tété into sexual slavery as well, a common practice in the Caribbean and elsewhere. The novel revolves, though, around one of Valmorain's mulatta slaves, Zarité, called Tété for short. The novel begins with the arrival in 1770 of a Frenchman, Toulouse Valmorain, to the Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue to run his father's plantation. In the novel, a great deal of violent death occurs, but the story - like Haiti's story now - belongs to the survivors. The term "island beneath the sea" refers to an underworld where the dead exist. Like her previous eight novels, "Island Beneath the Sea" is rich in drama, setting, themes, characters, dialogue and symbolism. The value of Allende's historical novel, however, goes well beyond the timing. Now, Allende's novel will find a wide audience eager to know how the former French colony gained its independence and its name.
She wrote it long before January, when an earthquake destroyed much of Haiti.īefore the earthquake, public interest in the early history of the island might have been limited.
Allende's "Island Beneath the Sea," could not be better timed.
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