She would be king : a novel
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references.

Three extraordinary people use their unusual powers to protect the fledgling state of Liberia.

In the West African village of Lai, red-haired Gbessa is cursed at birth and exiled on suspicion of being a witch. Bitten by a viper and left for dead, she nevertheless survives. On a plantation in Virginia, June Dey hides his unusual strength until a confrontation with the overseer forces him to flee. An in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, Norman Aragon, the child of a white British colonizer and a Maroon slave, can fade from sight at will, just as his mother could. Gbessa, misunderstood by her own people, finds a new life with a group of African American settlers in the colony of Monrovia. When she meets June Dey and Norman Aragon, it isn't long before they realize that they are all cursed - or, perhaps, uniquely gifted. Together they protect the weak and vulnerable, but only Gbessa can salvage the tense relationship between the settlers and the indigenous tribes. The all-seeing spirit of the wind weaves together their extraordinary stories. "If she was not a woman," the wind says of Gbessa, "she would be king."In the West African village of Lai, red-haired Gbessa is cursed at birth and exiled on suspicion of being a witch. Bitten by a viper and left for dead, she nevertheless survives. On a plantation in Virginia, June Dey hides his unusual strength until a confrontation with the overseer forces him to flee. An in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, Norman Aragon, the child of a white British colonizer and a Maroon slave, can fade from sight at will, just as his mother could. Gbessa, misunderstood by her own people, finds a new life with a group of African American settlers in the colony of Monrovia. When she meets June Dey and Norman Aragon, it isn't long before they realize that they are all cursed - or, perhaps, uniquely gifted. Together they protect the weak and vulnerable, but only Gbessa can salvage the tense relationship between the settlers and the indigenous tribes. The all-seeing spirit of the wind weaves together their extraordinary stories. "If she was not a woman," the wind says of Gbessa, "she would be king." -- from jacket.