Property is a 2003

2003 in literature

The year 2003 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Peter Ackroyd - The Clerkenwell Tales*Atsuko Asano - No...

 novel by Valerie Martin

Valerie Martin

Valerie Martin is an American novelist and short story writer. She has also taught at Mount Holyoke College, Loyola University New Orleans, The University of New Orleans, The University of Alabama, and Sarah Lawrence College, among other institutions. She is a graduate of the MFA Program for...

, and was the winner of the 2003 Orange Prize

Orange Prize for Fiction

The Orange Prize for Fiction is one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes, annually awarded to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English, and published in the United Kingdom in the preceding year...

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The book is set on a sugar plantation near New Orleans during the 1830s, and tells the story of Manon Gaudet, the wife of the plantation's owner, and Sarah, the slave Manon was given as a wedding present and who she has brought with her from the city. The private drama of the estate is played out against the backdrop of civil unrest and slave rebellion.

Critical Analyses

• Tim A. Ryan, “Mammy and Scarlett Done Gone: Complications of the Contemporary Novel of Slavery, 1986-2003.” Calls and Responses: The American Novel of Slavery since Gone with the Wind. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2008: 149-84.