"Maryse Conde was the eighth child in her family, an unexpected one. Her father, a civil servant, had been awarded the Legion d'honneur; her elegant mother had been a schoolteacher. She was raised to respect the culture of France. Her family was proud of its position in the world and mindful of distinctions of skin tone, language and class.".

"In this collection of autobiographical essays, Maryse Conde evokes the relationships and events that gave her childhood meaning: her first crush; a falling out with her best friend; discovering her parents' feelings of alienation; the death of her beloved grandmother; her own first encounter with racism."--BOOK JACKET.