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Madam Fate
Soho Press (New York), Women's Press (London)
(January 1999)
Madam Fate is a lyrical and evocative novel exploring themes of slavery, madness, and migration, set in Jamaica. At its heart is Bella, a kin-owl—a shapeshifter—who knows the story of how God created Jamaica and how She laughed when She saw what She had done. Through the generations, Bella lives on, in one incarnation then another, always meeting suffering with fortitude while hiding the burden of her strange nature from others.
Some of the women whose lives cross hers are young Gracie, who seeks comfort as she waits for her mother to return from New York, and Mrs. Cummings, who teaches Gracie about the healing plants in her garden and sends her in search of the mysterious white star flower known as Madam Fate.
Mama said a long time ago, before this island even had a name, before it was called Jamaica, and even before it was called Xaymaca, God used to take a nap in the warm waters here.
Selected Praise
Extremely lyrical and meditative, Marcia Douglas' Madam Fate is a poetic feast for the imagination.
— Edwidge Danticat
...a story which tickles the senses and delights the imagination.
— Library Journal
...so flesh-and-warm human-- all expressed with such a glory of Caribbean English- that what you are reading is a novel which is hugely uplifting, charged with a revolutionary spirit of language and empathy.
— The Morning Star
...earthy, lyrical and tragic.
— Boston Sunday Globe
