I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem

Offered here for the first time in English is "I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem," by the Guadeloupean writer Maryse Conde.

This novel, winner of the 1986 Grand Prix Litteraire de la Femme, expands on the true story of the West Indian slave Tituba, who was accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, arrested in 1962, and forgotton in jail until the general amnesty for witches two years later.

Maryse Conde brings Tituba out of historical silence and creates for her a fictional child hood, adolescence, and old age.

She turns her into what she calls "a sort of female hero, an epic heroine, like the legendary "Nanny of the maroons," who, schooled in the sorcery and magical ritual of obeah, is arrested for healing members of the family that owns her.

Rich in postmodern irony, the novel even includes a encounter with Hester Prynne of Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter." Conde breaks new ground in both style and content, transcending cultural and epochal boundaries, not only exposing the hypocrisy of Puritan New England, but challanging us to look at racism and religious bigotry in contemporary America. This readable novel celebrates Tituba'a unique voice, exploring issues of identity and the implications of "otherness" in Western in Western literary traditions.

Its multiple layers should delight a wide variety of readers.