Asmodeus
Asmodeus (Graywolf Press) by Rita Indiana,translated from the Spanish by Achy Obejas, patterns itself symbolically on Grecian tragedy, but contains a fierce, pulsing Dominican heart. Titular Asmodeus, a demon alive for millennia, loses control of Rudy, the formerly famous Dominican rock star he had been inhabiting. In Asmodeus’ urgent quest to recalibrate his power, Indiana […]
Confidence is Action
Confidence is Action: Become Your Most Brilliant, Brave, and Bold Self (River Grove Books) by Tricia Conyers doubles as both personal manifesto and inspirational trail guide for empowering women of all ages to access their most confident selves. Conyers, a personal development coach and founder of Inspire Her Coaching, draws on candid first-person accounts of […]
Dèy
Dèy (Knopf), the first novel by Haitian-American Edwidge Danticat in over a decade, takes its title from the Haitian Kreyòl word for mourning. Protagonist, successful real estate agent Magnolia, is catapulted into memories of fear and violence in the aftermath of a Miami mall shooting. Brought close to the spectres of her past, Magnolia is […]
Human, Still
Human, Still: Strengthening Your Mind for an AI-Shaped Future (One Momentum Publishing) by M. Analise Kandasammy, a Guyanese native based in Trinidad and Tobago, takes a radically distinct proposition from digital pundits proclaiming ultra-reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) models and products. In Human, Still, Kandasammy uses arguments based in neuroscience and economics to prove that […]
Reputation
Reputation, (Roots and Shoots Publishing) the debut novel by Amanda Coreishy, explores the intensities and complications in a romance between conservatively-raised Asiyah and her significantly older landlord, Cisco. Set in early 2000s Trinidad, Reputation refuses to shy away from the societal consequences meted out to young women who diverge from their preordained paths. Coreishy employs […]
The Disappearers
The Disappearers, (Riverhead/Hamish Hamilton), the sixth novel by Marlon James, plunges deep into violent homophobic life in Jamaica of the 1980s. Following the lives—and deaths—of eight gay men rehearsing for a theatrical performance of John Herbert’s Fortune and Men’s Eyes, The Disappearers tracks their individual and intertwined paths to survival. Relentless in its portrayal of […]
An Analytical History of Tobago
Fortune and Men’s Eyes
Merikins
The Flowering Rock
Tobago in Print
Bless Me, Papi
Bless Me, Papi (Curbstone Books / Northwestern University Press) by Dominican-American poet and memoirist Ayendy Bonifacio is the author’s debut work of young adult fiction. In Bless Me, Papi, a first-person narrator, thirteen-year-old Domingo José Sepulveda Jr., receives communiques from his deceased father in the form of a pigeon and a ghost. As Domingo pursues […]
Deep Water
Deep Water (Self-Published), a debut collection of poems by Trinidadian musician and writer Kobie Alleyne, delves into themes of self-discovery and transformation, utilizing extended aqueous metaphors. The book is sectioned into five movements, Low Tide, Rising Tide, High Tide, Storm Surge, and Open Water, each representative of an individual’s journey through the vicissitudes of life. […]
Is Anybody Out There?
Is Anybody Out There? by Michael ‘Jai’ Kernahan is a fictionalized account of the author’s time as part of the National Union of Freedom Fighters (NUFF), the T&T anti-government group active in the aftermath of the 1970 Black Power Revolution. Subtitled “The true story of the Guerrilla war by the National United Freedom Fighters 1970-1975, […]
Triage
Triage (Graywolf Press/ Allen Lane) by Claudia Rankine, the newest work from the critically lauded Jamaican-American poet and essayist, is a composite publication melding the genres of memoir, literary criticism, biography, and lyric essay. Triage explores the frayed relationship between two former friends, now marked by decades of silence, while paralleling their ruptured bond to […]
You Are a Wonder of the Universe
You Are a Wonder of the Universe (Royards Publishing Company) by Trinidadian attorney and artist Judy K. Matthews is a guide to all those on the path to enlightenment and heightened creative purpose. Subtitled “Why The Heck Are You Dangling Off The Edge?”, Matthews’ book seeks to reinvest readers with their own power, thus enabling […]
It’s Wednesday—What Could Go Wrong!
The Mystery Caller
101 Birds of Tobago’s Rainforest
101 Birds of Tobago’s Rainforest (Self-Published) by wildlife photographer and environmentalist Faraaz Abdool has been released in commemoration of 250 years of the Tobago Main Ridge Forest Reserve. Abdool’s photographs of numerous bird species, ranging from postcard-popular avians to lesser-known subspecies, are accompanied by informative biodata captions. Focusing not only on the individual birds, the […]
Haunting the Black Air
Haunting the Black Air (Bloomsbury) by Anthony Joseph moves its reader musically, with compressed and elegant density, through Trinidad in the eyes of labourers, lovers, families and upstarts. Joseph’s poetic focus is as polyphonic as it is sustained in its interest in Trinidadianness—including, notably, when that local spirit meets the incessant call of the world […]
Masqueraders
Masqueraders: Selected Essays (Carcanet Press), the full-length nonfiction debut by Trinidadian Scottish Anthony V. Capildeo presents essays, letters, and dispatches originally published across years in PN Review. The settings of these writings, which move from the diaristic to the scientific, roam from Paper Based Bookshop in Trinidad, to the late poet Charles Causley’s Cornwall cottage, […]
Rebel Heiress
Rebel Heiress (Joy Revolution) third in The Diamonds young adult romance series by Amalie Howard, presents witty and likeable protagonists caught up in a Regency-era mistaken identity caper. Howard, born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, designates an ethnically diverse cast, starring Lady Rosalin Chen who chafes at society’s expectations. When Rosalin enrolls herself at […]
sipèstisyon
sipèstisyon (YesYes Books), the debut of Haitian-American Mckendy Fils-Aimé navigates trauma and superstition in poems that reach deep into spiritual practices, time-honoured rituals, and the marked generational differences that often arise over oppositional observances of faith. Reframing perspectives of migrant childhood and transitory youth against the uneven road towards healing, sipèstisyon treads the boards of […]
Aelred’s Sin
About to Fall Apart
About to Fall Apart (Faber & Faber) by Ashley Hickson-Lovence is an identity story steeped in urgency, its events unspooling over the course of a single weekend. The novel’s protagonist, sixty-six year old mixed-race Aidy, was raised in a supportive adoptive household, and yearns to know more about his birth mother. Aidy’s fragmented relationships with […]
Chanka Maharaj
Chanka Maharaj (Self-Published) by Satnarine Balkaransingh is an authorized biography of the late T&T sportsman, political figure, wrestler, and religious leader. Encompassing the span of Maharaj’s life and accomplishments, Balkaransingh’s nonfiction book is a detailed, meticulous study, incorporating archival photographs, articles, and recorded testimonials in its contents. Attention is paid to Maharaj’s legacy as a […]
Honey
Honey (Random House) by Imani Thompson unwinds a psychological horror story wound tautly in the spool of feminine rage and ambition. Thompson, a London-based writer of Jamaican and Scottish descent, presents a calculating, complex protagonist in the form of Yrsa, a PhD student at Cambridge who tires of the duplicitous, dangerous ways of men. In […]
The Impossibility of Nothingness
The Impossibility of Nothingness (Peepal Tree Press) by Ian McDonald ventures beyond the borders of the expected, in this latest offering from the nonagenarian Guyanese writer, who claims T&T as an indelible part of his creative consciousness. As with his recent collections, The Impossibility of Nothingness focuses on the ephemerality of life, while also making […]