This is history as centrifuge. The Traore family of Segu, in 18th Century West Africa, is scattered across the globe by ancestral rivalry, Islamic conquest, slavery, and the Christian outriders of colonialism. The narrative structure reflects this sense of dislocation. Developing threads are dropped abruptly, only to be picked up years - and many monumental events - later. Motives are opaque and coincidences uncanny. It's a structure which feels true to the place and time, but tests the interest of the reader. The characters themselves are trapped as much by themselves as their circumstances. The pride of men, their sense of humiliation, and their capacity for sexual violence, guilt are elevated to the same plane as the historical forces acting on them, as irresistible as the weather. Despite these failings, it is a fascinating period in time, rarely depicted in fiction, and I left grateful to Condé for tying these stories together.