After her parents drown in the flooded Massacre River that marks the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, young Haitian Amabelle Desir becomes a housemaid to Dominican landowner Don Ignacio, and a companion to his daughter, Valencia. As the book opens, Valencia and Amabelle are grown women, and Amabelle attends the birth of Valencia's twins. Valencia is now married to a Dominican army officer seeking to rise in the ranks, and he is soon assigned to assist in the brutal slaughter of Haitians in the Dominican Republic.
Amabelle's lover, Sebastien, works in Ignacio's...
Source: Literature of Developing Nations for Students, ©2012 Gale Cengage. All Rights Reserved. Full copyright.
(The entire page is 837 words.)
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