This epic novel chronicles 150 years of post-slavery Carribbean history, as told through the many individual stories of Marie-Sophie, daughter of a slave and spokeswoman for the shantytown the book is named after. The challenge was to design an elegant and contemporary cover that in structure reflected the book’s immense complexity, and at the same time honored its clarity. The cover’s success is largely due to the beauty and timelessness of its central image, a detail from a painting (“Portrait of a Black Woman”) that hangs in the Louvre. Through the wonders of Photoshop, I was able to integrate the painting thematically with some visually unrelated images I felt were vital to evoke both the book’s mystical dimensions as well as its factual historical content. Hence, the amorphous tropical greenery, which gives a sense of environment and a yellowed antique map that establishes time and place.