by Trianne Harabedian
A sweeping tale of curses, slavery, and revolution (with a touch of magic), She Would Be King by Wayétu Moore is a debut novel of mythical proportions. The story moves from Africa to Virginia to Jamaica to Monrovia in a re-imagining of the founding of Liberia, centered around three characters whose supernatural abilities assist the fledgling country. History and magical realism combine to create a beautifully heartbreaking myth, where love and survival struggle to coexist.
The story begins with the Vai tribe and a girl, Gbessa, who is born the same day a wicked woman dies. Pronounced as cursed, Gbessa is shut inside her mother’s home until she comes of age and is forced out of the village. Alone in the woods, Gbessa faces starvation, isolation, and a deadly snake bite. When she finally returns to the village, the villagers are afraid of her because they believed she had died a long time ago. Reeling from this idea, Gbessa realizes they are right. She should have died, several times over. This is how she discovers her gift–she cannot die.
Far away, on a plantation in Virginia, June Dey is a slave raised by a woman who is not his biological mother. He knows nothing of his true parents, or his strange beginning, and loves Darlene fully. She patiently endures the wrath of the plantation owner’s wife, who is jealous of her beauty, for years. When the plantation owner dies and his wife decides to sell Darlene and send June Dey to the fields, Darlene finally snaps. In an effort to protect her, June Dey incurs the wrath of the overseer and is forced to run for his life. This is when he discovers his own gift–weapons cannot hurt him.
The story then moves to Jamaica, where a white scientist discovers that his female slave, Nanni, has the ability to disappear into the earth. He keeps her captive for observation, and when they have a child together, he subjects the boy to countless tests and experiments. Norman Aragon grows up dreaming of the day his father will send him and his mother to Africa to be free, as he promised to do years earlier. But when his father finally purchases tickets for an overseas journey, Nanni realizes at the last minute that he plans to take them to America. She tries to escape up the mountain with Norman Aragon, and in a violent struggle he discovers his gift–he can disappear into the earth, just like his mother before him.
As Gbessa, June Dey, and Norman Aragon continue their journeys, they learn more about their gifts and the currently shifting world. They travel through places where slavery is still rampant, through free towns, and through lands where the slave trade continues, illegally, to bring violence to peaceful villages. And in true mythical form, their paths tend to cross. Eventually, they all arrive in a newly-born country, Liberia, where they use their gifts and unique experiences to help protect this new place of freedom. Perfect for anyone who loves old-world fairy tales and mythical stories of courage, this novel takes darkness and introduces a magical light.
Wayétu Moore will be at Lemuria on Tuesday, October 9, at 5:00 to sign and read from She Would Be King.
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