Told by Manu, this novel journeys through 18th-century London and Demerara in British Guiana, recounting experiences that might be dreamed or remembered. With a diverse cast--including slaves, lowly women on the make, lustful overseers, sodomites, and pious Jews--these characters come alive from artist William Hogarth's engravings; Hogarth himself also appears as a drunkard official artist in Demerara, from whom the slave Cato steals his skills and...