With the publication of "All Souls' Rising," Madison Smartt Bell was immediately acclaimed as being "as remarkable a historical novelist as we have in this country" (Harold Bloom). The novel was a finalist for the National Book Award and was praised by writers as "a triumph of storytelling and inspired historical analysis" (Robert Stone) and by reviewers as "one of the year's most substantial literary accomplishments" ("The New Yorker"). Now, with "Master of the Crossroads," Bell achieves an even greater accomplishment: he brings to life the rise to power of the great Haitian military general Toussaint Louverture and the story of the only successful slave revolution in history. Beginning in 1794, Toussaint led his troops to victory over English and Spanish invaders, over the French political establishment, and in a civil uprising for control of the infant island republic. He extended the ideological triumph of the French and American revolutions by offering universal liberty and human rights to all races. In chronicling Toussaint's victory and its aftermath, Bell gives us a kaleidoscopic portrait of this extraordinary figure as seen through the eyes of the men and women whose paths he crossed. English, French, Spanish, and African--the intersection of peoples who inhabited this war-torn island creates a rich social canvas against which the astonishing story of Toussaint Louverture--his beliefs, passions, and compulsions--unfolds over the course of nine tumultuous years.
