cover image The Children of Segu

The Children of Segu

Maryse Conde. Ballantine Books, $9.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-345-36634-4

This sequel to Segu concerns the 19th-century tribal wars, Islamic conquest and French occupation of the African kingdom, focusing on characters with kinship bonds to the Traore family. ``Male characters supply the dominant points of views; women are seen as objects. Exhaustive scholarship . . . suffocates the narrative,'' PW complained. (Nov.)