Raphaël Confiant’s Grand-Z’Ongle: Le Maître de l’invisible was published by Caraibéditions in April 2023. A recurring figure in Martinican literature, including novels by Raphaël Confiant et de Patrick Chamoiseau, Faustin Homat, also known as Grand-Z’Ongle, was considered to be the greatest quimboiseurs of the island. Also see excerpts from Cynthia Roussi-Sabas’s (France-Antilles) interview with the author below.

Description (Caraïbéditions):  In the mid-1960s, a man aroused fear as well as admiration in Martinique and especially in Foyal, the affectionate name of its capital, Fort-de-France. He is a terrifying sorcerer who takes on the title of Grand Maître de l’Invisible [Grand Master of the Invisible]. His name, Flavius Homant, is unknown to everyone, not because he tried to hide it but because it was replaced by the nickname Grand-Z’Ongle. He could, on command, tear a couple apart, ruin a business, drive mad the people designated to him or make them fall into decline. But his greatest feat was that he was also capable of killing from a distance. He himself admitted to more than four hundred victims. [. . .]

Cynthia Roussi-Sabas interviewed the author for France-Antilles:

Why is this an “imagined biography” and not imaginary? Was it a desire to unravel the mystery surrounding his death?

This book is not a novel. The facts reported there come from research that I carried out with people who either had the opportunity to go for a consultation with Grand-Z’Ongle, or have heard about it [first-hand]. Based on this information, I slipped into the character, and I identified with him. Hence the fact that this autobiography has nothing that is imaginary…

Did this help you better understand the transformation of this man into this feared character, but to whom people did not hesitate to go and with whom they consulted?

Grand-Z’Ongle is in no way different from the other clairvoyants, quimboiseurs, sorceresses, plant healers, etc. [voyants, quimboiseurs, dormeuses, docteurs-feuilles] of Martinique in the sense that their existence together testifies to a form of three-secular resistance to the imposition of a religion, Catholicism, which was not that of their ancestors. What makes Grand-Z’Ongle unique is, among other things, the power to kill from a distance that he claimed to have. [. . .]

Excerpts translated by Ivette Romero.

See the original description (in French) and more information at https://www.caraibeditions.fr/accueil/643-grand-z-ongle.html

For review of the novel (subscription required), see https://www.martinique.franceantilles.fr/actualite/culture/je-me-suis-coule-dans-la-peau-de-grand-zongle-940286.php