Carmen D'Alessio

The Second Bride Carmen D'Alessio

A French Doctor, Cécile, goes to live in Dakar and she falls in love with the Minister of Agriculture. She is the second wife, in Senegal it is allowed to have four wives and from this relationship twins with black skin and blonde hair are born. This story dips into the African culture and reveals traditions and rituals, imbued with revelations and facts that occur, which are difficult to explain scientifically, events that to the rest of the world are almost completely unknown. Most of all the story reveals the strong solidarity between the four women of the Minister's Concession (many-unit house where they all live together) who are: the first wife of the Minister, the Mother-in-law, the sister-in-law and the protagonist Cécile, a solidatiry that she had never experimented before. She hires a Frenchman who works for the World Cooperation to look after her humanitarian projects which she has on-going in the Savana, during her maternity. This results in a disaster and without Cécile realising it, she runs many risks that put her life in danger. In carrying out her double role, as second wife and as a surgeon in Dakar's hospital, Cécile brings the reader to experiment and understand that special relationship between the four women which, according to her, is the strength of the Nation. It is that same relationship which, in the end, saves her life. Cécile is also a Reiki Master and before giving birth to her twins she gives a Reiki Course to the entire village of one of her projects.