Alma / Svoboda

It is the hot summer of 1798. France is on the brink of national bankruptcy and people are running out of bread, even though bakers are mixing sawdust into the flour. While Alma and Joseph are swept up in the revolution, ships continue to sail from the African coast with their holds crammed full of slaves. A mysterious Mr. Bassompierre has just arrived in Paris, in whom Joseph Mars recognizes a long-lost friend, but Alma must follow her brother's trail to Louisiana, and Amélie Bassac clears the forest, plants coffee trees, builds a mill... She earns money to pay off a loan shark, otherwise she will lose her estate....

Meanwhile, history continues to unfold: from one shore of the Atlantic to the other, from Versailles, through London, to Louisiana, from the uprising in France to the slave rebellion in Saint-Domingue. In the final part of the trilogy, the fates of those seeking freedom intersect with those of slave owners and the royal family. And Alma and Joseph's bond grows stronger in the face of ever-present danger.

The final part of the trilogy by French writer Timothée de Fombelle, like the previous parts, features illustrations by François Place, who also illustrated the author's acclaimed debut Tobias Lolness. The book was translated into Czech by Hana Zahradníčková.