The Gospel According To The New World

From the Queen of Caribbean storytelling

One Easter Sunday, Madame Ballandra puts her hands together and exclaims: “A miracle!” Baby Pascal is strikingly beautiful, brown in complexion, with gray-green eyes like the sea. But where does he come from? Is he really the child of God? So goes the rumor, and many signs throughout his life will cause this theory to gain ground. From journey to journey and from one community to another, Pascal sets off in search of his origins, trying to understand the meaning of his mission. Will he be able to change the fate of humanity? And what will the New World Gospel reveal? For all its beauty, vivacity, humor, and power, Maryse Condé’s latest novel is above all a work of combat. Lucid and full of conviction, Condé attests that solidarity and love remain our most extraordinary and lifesaving forces.

“Maryse Condé is a treasure of world literature, writing from the center of the African diaspora with brilliance and a profound understanding of all humanity.”
RUSSELL BANKS

“Condé has a gift for storytelling, combined with a mordant sense of humor.”
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW


Maryse Condé is the Grande Dame of Caribbean Literature. She was born in Guadeloupe in 1937 as the youngest of eight siblings. She taught Francophone Literature at Colombia University in New York, and lived there for many years. She has also lived in various West African countries, most notably in Mali, where she gained inspiration for her worldwide bestseller Segu, for which she was awarded the African Literature Prize and several other respected French awards. Condé was awarded the 2018 New Academy Prize (or “Alternative Nobel”) in Literature as well as the 2021 Global Cino Del Duca Award for her oeuvre. She also received the Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit from President Emmanuel Macron in 2020. She conquered the hearts of many readers in English-language territories with her novels The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana and Waiting for the Waters to Rise, longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature in the US.


Author
“This is my last book. I wanted it to be a testament to my persistent faith. Inner strength and faith like Pascal’s are what count most to change the world, though we might never achieve it. Loving others seems to me to be the way, perhaps the only one, to make an impact. This is also my most daring book. Does a human being have the right to pretend to be God Himself? I don’t think so. However, José Saramago’s, Amélie Nothomb’s, and J.M. Coetzee’s books doing just that made me feel authorized to write a Gospel parody anyway.”

Translator
“Having the choice between The Gospel According to the New World or The Gospel of the New World I decided on the former because of its biblical resonance and references. The parody of the New Testament miracles and the scene of the Nativity were a delight to translate and they had no difficulty crossing over into English because they are so universal and recognizable.”

Publisher
“Everything Maryse Condé touches turns to gold. Her writing is witty and intelligent, as well as being daring and full of life. She isn’t just the Queen of Caribbean Literature but also the Goddess of her own literary universe; she knows how to blow life into each and every character she creates. I deeply admire her both as an author and a human being, and am very proud to publish her work in the English-language territories. ”