Praise for The Gospel According to the New World
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2023
“The great voice of the Caribbean.” —The International Booker Prize 2023 panel of judges
”The book borrows from the tradition of magical realism and draws us into a world full of colour and life. This is a book that succeeds in mixing humour with poetry, and depth with lightness.” —The International Booker Prize 2023 panel of judges
“The novel (The Gospel According to the New World) follows a mixed-race, Christ-like figure who travels the world in search of meaning and belonging. Along the way, he encounters revolutionaries, tyrants, false prophets and actual Judases — not to mention a string of passionate lovers. It feels like a capstone work.” —New York Times
“This inventive bildungsroman follows Pascal, an abandoned child in Martinique whose colorful life mirrors that of Jesus Christ, as he seeks to understand his purpose.”—New York Times
“French novelist Condé (Waiting for the Waters to Rise) delivers an ingenious bildungsroman of a messianic figure in contemporary Martinique. Readers will be transfixed.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“The leading Caribbean writer’s latest, compelling novel does not preach but it does instruct.”—Irish Times
“Joyful and optimistic. A deceptively simple novel full of wisdom, generosity of spirit, and the writer’s palpable tenderness towards the world and her craft.” —LEÏLA SLIMANI, author of the international bestseller The Perfect Nanny
“In the intricate, elegantly written The Gospel According to the New World by Maryse Condé (Waiting for the Waters to Rise), a miracle child searches for the mission that will bring meaning to his life and finds it in ordinary existence. Condé starts by hitting the major beats of the Gospels: a humble yet remarkable birth, healings, feeding the multitudes and acclamation from the masses--followed by ridicule and betrayal. But in this meditative bildungsroman, the potential messiah, once he discovers his origins, searches in vain for his purpose and for connection with his biological father.” —Shelf Awareness
“The latest novel to appear in translation from Maryse Condé is set in Martinique, where a series of events reminiscent of certain other events that took place around 2,000 years ago seem to be happening again. It is entirely possible that the author of this book could one day become the first writer to win both the Alternative Nobel Prize and the Nobel Prize, which would be amazing.” —Volume 1 Brooklyn
“With The Gospel According to the New World, Maryse Condé offers us a poetic and haunting fable-like novel. A newborn left in a garden, miracles and symbols—this is a biblical story that evokes wonder and conjures a welcome optimism. There is no age limit on dreaming.” —ELLE
“An irresistible version of the life of Jesus. What holds this novel together—more than the diversity of the episodes, the beauty of the erotic scenes and the book’s humor—is Maryse Condé’s ability to play with our need to believe in a savior and our hope that another world is possible, as well as with the necessity to laugh with that dream.” —Le Monde des livres
Praise for Maryse Condé
“The grand queen, the empress, of Caribbean literature." —The Guardian
”Throughout her four-decade literary career, the Guadeloupean writer has explored a global vision of the Black diaspora, and placed Caribbean life at the center. In the past few years, Condé has been showered with honors and accolades across the globe. The Haitian writer Edwidge Danticat sees Condé as a ‘giant of literature,’ whose prolific work connects continents and generations. One thing is certain: Condé is finally receiving the acclaim her wide-ranging body of work deserves.” —New York Times
“She describes the ravages of colonialism and the post-colonial chaos in a language which is both precise and overwhelming. In her stories the dead live close to the living in a world where gender, race, and class are constantly turned over in new constellations.” —ANN PÅLSSON, Jury, New Academy Prize in Literature
“Condé is a born storyteller.” —Publishers Weekly
“An extraordinary storyteller.” —BERNARDINE EVARISTO
“It’s inspiring to see that Condé gives words and meaning to our histories—African histories, Black histories, Black lives.” —CLARICE GARGARD
“Maryse Condé has given me the freedom to call myself woman.” —EDWIGE-RENÉE DRO
“Maryse Condé shows African lives in a way that’s rich, that’s glamorous, and in a way that shows the characters to be as flawed as they really are. It’s very rare to come across a writer of fiction who puts so much of their personal story into their work. Her books challenge one’s perceptions of oneself, which I think is one of the greatest things that Miss Maryse Condé does for the Black person. When you read her work you are forced to reexamine the definition of your own Blackness.” —LOLA SHONEYIN
“Her work really links the questions that face Black people all over the world … showing you the conditions that the Black person faces in the world.” —MOLARA WOOD
“I think she embodies the world. She belongs to the world. The breadth of her global experience, at a time when we didn’t speak about Black women as belonging to the world is remarkable.” —SISONKE MSIMANG
“Maryse Condé has managed to successfully bridge the gap between Africa and its diaspora. If nothing else, reading her work helps us get into the mindset to know about our brothers and sisters from the diaspora.” —ZUKISWA WANNER
“Maryse Condé is a treasure of world literature, writing from the center of the African diaspora with brilliance and a profound understanding of all humanity.”—RUSSELL BANKS

Maryse Condé was the Grande Dame of Caribbean Literature. She was born in Guadeloupe in 1934 as the youngest of eight siblings. She taught Francophone Literature at Colombia University in New York, and lived in various West African countries. Her worldwide bestseller Segu, was awarded the African Literature Prize. Condé was awarded the 2018 New Academy Prize (or “Alternative Nobel”) in Literature as well as the 2021 Prix mondial Cino Del Duca for her oeuvre. She also received the Grand-Croix de l’Ordre national du Mérite from President Emmanuel Macron in 2020. Her novel Waiting for the Waters to Rise was longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature and The Gospel According to the New World was a 2023 International Booker Prize Finalist. Maryse Condé passed away in 2024.
Richard Philcox was Maryse Condé’s husband and translator. He has also published new translations of Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth and Black Skin, White Masks. He has taught translation on various American college campuses and won grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts for the translation of Condé’s works. Philcox’s translation of Condé’s Waiting for the Waters to Rise, published by World Editions, was longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature in the US, and his translation of The Gospel According to the New World was a 2023 International Booker Prize Finalist.