He Burns by the River (Augustine Books) by Khalia Moreau is a young adult folkloric adventure set in Trinidad’s 1960s, retelling the Biblical tale of Cain and Abel through two youths coming of age in a fraught time. The bond between Roran and his older, fair-skinned brother Danny are beset by ambition and colourism: this sibling struggle becomes even more complicated when Danny falls ill to a mysterious malady. The villagers of Sapo, where both boys live, call it Obeah: can Roran reveal what lies beneath their fearful whispers? Moreau’s postcolonial characters are lifelike, confidently-hewn.