"As powerful as a hurricane. . . .
All Souls' Rising is really about us, our times, our prejudices, our race wars." -
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution "A serious historical novel that reads like a dream." -
The Washington Post Book World "Rich and ambitious. . . . One of the most sophisticated fictional treatments of the enduring themes of class, color, and freedom." -
San Francisco Chronicle
"A powerful and intelligent novel. . . . Historical fiction in the monumental manner." -
The New York Times Book Review
"A beautifully composed, eloquent, grand nightmare of a book. With it, Bell becomes as remarkable a historical novelist as we have in this country." -Harold Bloom
"A work of breathtaking stylistic expertise on a large scale, easily [Bell's] most daring and accomplished novel." –
The Baltimore Sun "A passionately engaged opus.
All Souls' Rising reflects both a sustained imaginative audacity and great intellectual resourcefulness." –
The New Yorker "Remarkable. . . .
All Souls' Rising deserves to be read for its fictional representation of history and for its compelling characterizations. But its political importance should not be underestimated. . . . Bell's excursion into revolutionary Haiti is the attempt of an undaunted novelist to stand face to face, as it were, with the prehistory of our own racial divisiveness. . . . An important book." –
The Oregonian "I've known Madison Smartt Bell's work for quite a while, and this is the best thing he's ever done-and probably the best thing he'll ever do, which is my definition of a masterpiece.
All Souls' Rising is simply breathtaking." –Gloria Naylor
"The scope of this ambitious narrative is heroic. . . . Bell demonstrates that each race destroys itself in doing evil to the other." –
Chicago Tribune "A major work, a triumph of both storytelling and inspired historical analysis." –Robert Stone
"A vivid, visceral tale. . . . [Bell] has taken the events of eighteenth-century colonial Haiti and made them a prism for the most divisive issues confronting us today." –
The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Bell's luminous, intelligent novel . . . is magnificent. It restores my faith in the energy of American fiction." –Barbara Probst Solomon
