Une Saison Caraïbe (Editions Albin Michel, 2009), ninth novel by French author Denis Humbert, is set in Martinique and French Guiana. According to the publisher’s review, the Caribbean of Une Saison Caraïbe has nothing to do with tourism clichés. “In the style of Graham Greene or Georges Simenon, Denis Humbert reveals the dark side of a region submitted to the demons of history.”

The novel centers on Jean-Max, a man conscious of having failed in life, who decides to travel to Fort-de-France to find his long-lost daughter. With very few tools as a foreigner facing this “country of languidness and unknown dangers,” he embarks on the tracks of the young woman that he has not seen in ten years. The blurb goes on to describe the Caribbean as a “violent and heady” paradise of fine sand, a place of exotic mirages, seductions and traps. Although, in my view, this description of the Caribbean certainly falls into the category of touristic clichés, I am curious about the novel (being a fan of both Greene and Simenon) and hope that it has not been accurately described.

For purchasing information, see http://www.albin-michel.fr/fiche.php?EAN=9782226194077