In La matiere de l'absence (Paris: Seuil, 2016, paper [euro]21.00), the incontournable Patrick Chamoiseau offers a seriesof meandering philosophical reflections on death (composed in the form of largely one-way conversations with his eldest sister, La Baronne)--centered on that of their mother, Man Ninotte, replete with numerous, often touching childhood reminiscences, but quickly turning to such subjects as wakes, conteurs, zombies, gravediggers, the eruption of Mont Pelee, conques de
lambis, marronage and resistance, bele, l'esprit jazz, the Middle Passage, and the history of humanity, with multiple nods to Glissant, la Relation and le Tout-monde.