Martha Quest

248 pp. "The heroine of this powerful, searching novel is a passionate and intelligent young woman whose ideals are totally at odds with the life she observes around her. The daughter of provincial parents, Martha Quest has been raised in a small-minded town in Central Africa - a community where hypocrisy, intolerance, and mindless traditionalism prevail. The book, which traces Martha from adolescence through an ill-conceived marriage, depicts her abrasive relationships with her elders, her contemporaries, and society as a whole. Martha Quest is a true child of this century. Her personal conflicts mirror the convulsions and aspirations of our time: her successful rebellion, her liberation and its tragic failures, and finally her despair transmuted into a relentless determination to understand life."