[2] The novel was called "a fabulous, wonderful, inventive novel... a fine celebration of African heritage" by Jewell Parker Rhodes.

[3] Though it has been said that the novel "may have left its sci-fi/fantasy roots behind",[1] 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".

[1] 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.

[2] 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, an 18th-century enslaved woman 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.

[2] Each of the women is on her own life journey, and the goddess interweaves and influences their sexual, personal, and religious experiences.

By extension, the drying up of the salt roads represents the loss of connection between the enslaved Africans and their heritage.

If The Salt Roads is a story of freeing, in one interpretation or another, the Ginen, its title represents the key to that struggle.

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.

In the opening chapter, Mer and her helper/lover Tipingee deliver the stillborn child of a slave woman named Georgine.

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.

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 bush of her hair tumbled bout her round, brown, beautiful face in plaits and dreadknots, tied with twists of seaweed" (pg.

She knows her place, and feels that if she “denied to help [her] people, then [her] spirit wouldn’t fly home” (pg.

"Mer always had a strange way of talking about death…about how it was good to leave life and flee away from this place where the colourless dead tormented them daily" (pg.

For one who makes a living based on her beauty and desirability, it is only after having a stroke, losing all mobility in her right side and her lost glamour that she finds true love and self-worth.

Also referred to as "Pretty Pearl" and "Meritet", she is a young girl sold into prostitution paying her way to freedom in Alexandria, Egypt, 345 C.E.

On a whim, she boards a ship to Aelia Capitolina (now Jerusalem) with her best friend Judah, a homosexual male and fellow slave prostitute.

In Greece, Thais gets extremely ill. Lasirén pushes and motivates her to continue her journey so she can go to a church and find help.

"Tipingee curled her rebellious toes under, but the music just went dancing along her spine, begging it to move and away in time" (pg.

"I put my arm around the little thin body of this girl a third my thirty-something years..." (Mer comforting Georgine, pg.

Leader of the slave uprising who refuses to eat salt, giving himself the powers of the gods, which include morphing his body into animals.

You're tired when you settle down to sleep at night, just like here on the plantation, but you fall asleep thinking of all the things your labour will bring for you.

"The warmth of the drug spread all through my body, bringing blissful ease to my cramping belly" (pg.

Returning to such sentiments, Hopkinson allows readers to connect to her ethnically-rooted characters and to tie images of oranges, mud, and rivers, all very familiar, to ideas that are represented in the novel, such as skin color, physical appearance, and identity.

By shifting from Mer to Jeanne to Thais, the author gives each of the characters the ability to voice their opinions, beliefs, and, most importantly, their struggles.

"A book of wonder, courage, and magic... an electrifying bravura performance by one of our most important writers" -Junot Diaz, author of Drown "THE SALT ROADS is a story we all should know."

-Lalita Tademy, author of Cane River A diverse ensemble of powerful and unforgettable women...The tale sings with verve and authenticity.

Women of Caribbean area Haitian lwas La Sirene and Erzulie Saint Mary of Egypt Genen Gods and Goddesses Makandal's Rebellion Jeanne Duval Jules Verne Charles Baudelaire Spirit possession Time travel