Desirada (2012)

Marie-Noelle grows up basking in the island warmth of Guadeloupe and the affection of her adoptive mother, Ranelise. Out of the blue, her birth mother, Reynalda — who fled to France 10 years earlier — sends for her daughter. But Reynalda's heart is ''as barren as a desolate savanna,'' and Marie-Noelle unblossoms, succumbing temporarily to tuberculosis. As she hooks up with a dour dreadlocked musician, moves to America, takes on marriage, lovers, and friends, Marie-Noelle's exhaustive struggle to understand her past and to find satisfaction when she faces the future lends Maryse Conde's Desirada an inescapable gravitas. Conde has conjured up a tale of memory and legacy that is both lyrical and harrowing. A-