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Early Life, Family, and Education
Nalo Hopkinson was born December 20, 1960 in Kingston, Jamaica to Freda and Muhammed Abdur-Rahman Slade Hopkinson. She grew up in Guyana, Trinidad, and Canada. She was raised in a literary environment; her mother was a library technician and her father a Guyanese poet, playwright and actor who also taught English and Latin. By virtue of this upbringing, Hopkinson had access to writers like Derek Walcott during her formative years, and could read Kurt Vonnegut’s works by age six. Hopkinson’s writing is influenced by the fairy and folk tales she read at a young age, which included Afro-Caribbean stories like Anansi, as well as Western works like Gulliver’s Travels, the Iliad, the Odyssey ; she was also known to have read the works of Shakespeare around the time she was reading Homer. Though she lived in Connecticut briefly during her father’s tenure at Yale University, Hopkinson once admitted that the culture shock from her move to Toronto from Guyana at age sixteen was something “to which [she’s] still not fully reconciled”. She lived in Toronto from 1977 to 2011 before moving to Riverside, California.

The Salt Roads content
The Salt Roads is a novel by Nalo Hopkinson. It has been categorized as historical fiction, speculative fiction , science fiction , and magical realism.

Critical Acclaim
The novel was called "a fabulous, wonderful, inventive novel... a fine celebration of African heritage" by Jewell Parker Rhodes. Though it has been said that the novel "may have left its sci-fi/fantasy roots behind", it was nonetheless warmly received as a work that was quintessentially "Hopkinson" in many respects, not the least of which was its "re-creation of independent Black space". Hopkinson has been lauded for embracing uncommon vernaculars in her narratives, as well as melding many mythologies and cultural roots into her stories; The Salt Roads was no exception. High expectations surrounded the release of The Salt Roads after the book was identified by Warner Books as having significant crossover appeal beyond the science fiction genre, and Hopkinson went on a tour of ten cities (the biggest of her career at the time) to promote the novel.

Plot Introduction
Across the restrictions of time and space, the goddess Lasirén experiences and aids the struggles for freedom of the Ginen, the enslaved African people. The story is told through the eyes of Lasirén and the main three women whose lives become intertwined with her consciousness: Mer, a 18th century slave and respected healer on a plantation in St. Domingue, Jeanne Duval, the 19th century Haitian actress/dancer and mistress to the French poet Baudelaire, and Thais, the fourth century prostitute-turned-saint. Each of the women is on their own life journey, and the goddess interweaves and influences their sexual, personal, and religious experiences.

Plot Overview
The Salt Roads tells a story of the Ginen fertility god, Lasirén. Lasirén moves through both the ethereal space of the Loa and the physical space of humans. She often does the latter by possession of the bodies of other characters, especially females. While inhabiting them for varying periods of time, Lasirén helps the three main human characters find their place(s) in the world, and she influences their lives and the outcomes of their decisions through direct and indirect means. The novel weaves together the stories of the three women with the common thread of Lasirén's consciousness and her efforts to help the Ginen's struggle for freedom.

The novel begins with the introduction of Mer, a slave and healer on a sugar plantation in St. Domingue. In the opening chapter, Mer and her helper/lover Tipingee deliver the stillborn child of a slave woman named Georgine. The three women later bury the body at the edge of a nearby river, and their songs and prayers deliver Lasirén into being. Lasirén subsequently appears to Mer to inform her that the salt roads are drying up, and tasks Mer with clearing them. This task underpins the majority of Mer's story - her struggles to both understand and undertake the work of clearing Lasirén's path to the minds of the Ginen drive the progression and development of the novel's plot during her lifetime. As the Haitian slaves around her, called to violent revolution by the demagogue Makandal, begin to rally against the "backra" (white slave owners), Mer struggles for a more peaceful path to freedom. Her service to Lasirén puts Mer at odds with Makandal's method of obtaining freedom, and Mer's eventual possession by Lasirén at a key point in the story results in the failure of Makandal's revolution, the killing of Makandal, and the loss of Mer's tongue. Though she is later given the chance to escape her own enslavement, Mer chooses to stay with the slaves on the plantation. It is understood that Mer embodies one of Lasirén's aspects - her duty will be to heal the Ginen, and to fight for their freedom by preserving their heritage and thus keeping the salt roads clear for Lasirén.

The second main human character in The Salt Roads is Jeanne Duval, also known as Lemer and Prosper. She is a Haitian actress and singer in Paris who becomes the mistress of the author and poet, Charles Baudelaire. Jeanne's story is a struggle for economic freedom. She seeks joy and comfort, not only for herself but also for her ailing mother. Jeanne's relationship with Charles is tumultuous, and Lasirén's influence varies over the course of Jeanne's lifetime. As wealth comes and goes for Jeanne, the novel explores the importance of love, contentment, and money, as well as their relationship to one another. Ultimately, despite a long life of physical, emotional, and economic detriment, Jeanne finds herself loved and content at the end of her life as a result of Lasirén's influence. If Mer's life is a struggle for freedom from physical enslavement, Jeanne's can be understood as the struggle for freedom from economic and intellectual enslavement.

Thais, also known as Meritet, Mary, and Pretty Pearl, is the third main human character. She is a Nubian slave and prostitute living in Alexandria, Egypt. Thais' journey begins when she and her fellow slave and prostitute, Judah, decide to run away in order to see Aelia Capitolina (present-day Jerusalem). The decision to go to Aelia Capitolina is somewhat influenced by Lasirén's mental influence on Thais. Upon reaching their destination, Thais and Judah find themselves with few resources aside from what their bodies can offer. When she arrives at the famous Christian church that was the motivation for her journey, Thais has a miscarriage in the courtyard. The resulting trauma drives her to wander the desert with Judah for months with little water or food. The experience makes Thais acutely aware of herself and her surroundings, and allows her to interact with Lasirén's consciousness. Her communion with Lasirén drives her eventual sainthood through interactions with a wandering priest named Zosimus, and Thais and Judah go on to wander the desert for the remainder of their lives. Thais's open-ended story can be considered the struggle for freedom from sexual and emotional slavery.

Though the lives of the three human characters are distinct and independent, they are woven together by Lasirén's consciousness and influence. Often, prayers to Lasirén (or one of her other forms) are the catalyst for her possession of a character and the Loa's influence in the physical world. Additionally, each character's life is a facet of the Ginen's struggle for freedom, and the results of their story arcs are each a form or measure of success in that struggle.

Nalo Hopkinson content
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Brown Girl In the Ring content
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