Liberté

Set in 1789, one year into the French Revolution and two years before the uprising in Saint-Domingue (Haiti), Liberté introduces Sabine Beauregard, a gifted healer and placée to a powerful Grand Blanc named Christophe Montreuil. When we meet Sabine, she is treating Gaspard, a wounded family friend. His injury makes it clear he is involved in revolutionary activity. Sabine tells him she can no longer help him—she is days away from fleeing Saint-Domingue to begin life as a truly free woman. Gaspard is about to leave when her apothecary is raided by the colonial military police, the gendarmerie. If Gaspard is found, everyone will die. Sabine helps him escape through the shadows, then returns to the shop to protect her hidden savings and her mentor, Ekon. By the time she returns, a client has been murdered and she is nearly assaulted. To save herself and Ekon, she gives her entire savings to Jacques, the brutal captain of the gendarmerie and Christophe’s enforcer. Sabine returns home only to learn that Christophe himself ordered the raid—intending to eliminate any path she had to escape him or the island. From that moment, Sabine understands she will have to be far more cunning than before. But survival becomes even more complicated. Her maid Marie-Claire, her mother Adélaïde, and her surrogate father Antoine and her mentor Ekon are all involved in revolutionary efforts, as the rebellion gains ground. Surrounded by people choosing a side, Sabine must decide: join the fight or flee and remain forever a woman on the run.