Eau de Cafe

The small fishing village of Grand-Anse, on the northern Atlanic coast of Martinique, has somehow been cursed by the arrival of a mysterious and desirable girl, Antilia. Since her arrival the sea has become barren and the village has turned its back on it. Only the narrator, intrigued by the girl and the sea, keeps his window open. The village becomes a bizarre place, where miracles occur alongside the everyday. At one point Antilia dies but is resurrected, only to die again. Much of the action revolves around the village rum-shop-cum-grocery kept by the narrator's god-mother, the eponymous Eau de Cafe, which provides a framework for a wide range of social vignettes of well-known Martinican types. The whole provides a vividly authentic picture of French Caribbean village life.