At the Full and Change of the Moon - Softcover

A magnificent, shocking act of defiance by a woman in the 19th century begins this beautiful novel by an award-winning writer -- a richly imagined saga spanning six generations.

In 1824, on the island of Trinidad, Marie Ursule, queen of a secret society of militant slaves called the Sans Peur regiment, plots a mass suicide -- a quiet, passionate act of revolt. It is also the beginning of a new world, because Marie Ursule cannot bring herself to kill her small daughter, Bola, whom she smuggles away form the estate in the early dawn light. Bola's children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will spill  out across the world to America, to Canada, to Europe. Their lives will be haunted and vindicated by Marie Ursule's dreams and her passion, as the world passes through two wars and into the confusion, estrangement, and violence of the late twentieth century.

In sensuous prose, At the Full and Change of the Moon tells, through the intimately interconnected stories of Marie Ursule's descendants, a history of dispossession. And the heartbreaking intensity and wisdom with which we are drawn into the lives and passions of each of them, confirms Dionne Brand in the front rank of the world's novelists.