Kerim has lived in Montreal for nearly 20 years, but he has always stayed in touch with Mina: his muse, the quirky model he always kept coming back to. Mina, who danced a solitary farandole for the lens of his ancient Nikon. But more and more time has been passing between Mina’s calls and letters. There’s a final disquieting message, then nothing. Kerim decides to go back to the Port to find Mina. He revisits their old haunts, hoping to find her around the next corner. He goes to her now-deserted bookstore, the site of his political and social awakening. He talks to the old friends with whom he and Mina used to put on plays and taunt the tin-pot dictators. His tense, potentially dangerous, quest leads to a series of encounters with characters with questionable motives. Which Mina will he find? Will she be hidden behind a veil? Will she sing the news of Christ resurrected? Will she be scarred by torture?
Readers will not find a faraway, exotic Africa in these pages, but an Africa whose heart beats just like any other. The Africa of yesterday’s slavery that now indulges in the most savage commerce under the guise of globalization. The Africa where, as in the West, power is exercised by shadowy forces. Where each religion is more fanciful and manipulative than the last, eager to convert the people under the weary eyes of the primordial orishas.
An ode to the immortality of desire, the endless power of beauty, and the courage of women.