WIDEMAN JOHN E., THE ISLAND

A RICHLY LAYERED TAKE ON A POPULAR REGION: Wideman's exploration of Caribbean culture should find a broad audience. HIGH QUALITY, LOW PRICE: A winning combination of elegant design, high production value, and low price point. MULTI-MEDIA SUPPORT: Series is being supported across National Geographic media, including the magazines, the National Geographic Channel, and nationalgeographic.com. An American man of African descent and a French woman visit Martinique and discover an enormous mutual attraction that a third party - the island - both enhances and threatens. An unusual sort of menage a trois follows. The couple discovers the sensuousness and seductive beauty of the island, as they experience its vexed history of colonial violence and racism. The backdrop includes a former slave plantation, a rum factory, a cabaret featuring Zouk music, a volcanic eruption, writers and other local figures, as well as doses of history. Also appearing are the late philosopher-writer and Martinique native Frantz Fanon, artist Paul Gauguin, Thomas Jefferson, a cast of African slaves, ex-slaves, and Creoles, plus old-school colonialists as well as bekes and their descendants. The book attempts to decipher the meaning of Creole - the mix of African and European cultures, people, history.