Forbidden Book

"In a most disconcerting way he was being forced to acknowledge that he was probably not as different as he had thought - not as special; and certainly not white. No matter how he tried, he always found it hard to think of himself as black."

On the heels of the slave uprising in Haiti, the French Empire is rocked by another slave revolt, this time in its colony Saint Helen. The upheaval pits the settlers and slaves against each other, and plunges the colony into a racial war that keeps blacks and whites divided long after Emancipation.

Born into this polarized society where the colour of one's skin determines one's social status, Christian Joseph, a mulatto, finds favour because of his complexion and being brought up by priests. His world is turned upside down when he discovers that he was born out of wedlock to a white planter and a poor black girl. To his dismay, he further discovers that his father has died and willed his estate to Christian's mother, to the disbelief and outrage of many in the community, including the clergy. This forces Christian to return to the village of his birth to try and uncover the secrets of his past.