Super Short Summary

The Kingdom of This World, written by Alejo Carpentier and originally published in 1949, traces events in 20th-century Haiti, beginning in the French colonial period and stretching through the lifetime of its protagonist, Ti Noël. This novella is a work of dark magical realism and tells the story of two attempted rebellions against the French, the eventual reign of King Henri Christophe, the nation’s first Black king, and his downfall. The human costs of slavery (under white and Black slave-owners), as well as the hopes and beliefs of Africans living in Haiti during these regime changes, is shown from Ti Noël’s perspective.