Are you catching up on your local reading backlog but prefer to use your eReader or Kindle or can’t reach a bookstore right now?
Check out these seven novels written by Trinidadian authors and available with just one click on Amazon (and an active credit card):
1. When we were birds
by Ayanna Banwo
“A mythical love story set in Trinidad, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s beaming debut is a masterpiece of lush imagination and exuberant storytelling – a hauntingly hopeful novel about legacy, loss and the seismic healing power of love.”
https://amzn.to/3OhuNWr
2. A house for Mr. Biswas
by VS Naipaul
“During his forty-six short years, Mr. Mohun Biswas fought against fate to gain some semblance of independence, only to face a life of calamity. Transported from one residence to another after the drowning death of his father, for which he is inadvertently responsible, Mr. Biswas longs for a place he can call home. But when he marries the overbearing Tulsi family on whom he becomes unworthily dependent, Mr. Biswas embarks on an uphill – and never-ending – struggle to weaken their hold on him and buy his own home. A heartbreaking and black comedy of manners, A House for Mr. Biswas masterfully evokes one man’s quest for autonomy in the face of an emblematic postcolonial canvas.
https://amzn.to/38Qsp8N
3. Love after love: a novel
by Ingrid Persaud
“After the death of Betty Ramdin’s husband, she invites a colleague, Mr. Chetan, to move in with her and her son, Solo. Over time, the three become a family, love each other deeply and depend on each other. Then, one fateful night, Solo overhears Betty confiding in Mr. Chetan and learns a secret that plunges him into torment.
Solo flees Trinidad for New York to carve out a solitary existence as an undocumented immigrant, and Mr. Chetan remains the singular thread that unites mother and son. But soon, Mr. Chetan’s dark secret is revealed, with heartbreaking consequences. Love After Love questions love and family in all its myriad meanings and forms, asking how we might exchange illusory love for truly fulfilling love.
In vibrant and addictive Trinidadian prose, Love After Love questions who and how we love, family obligations and the consequences of choices made out of desperation.
https://amzn.to/38Qn4yd
5. A Plethora of Dead Ends: A Collection of Short Stories from Trinidad and Tobago
by Lance Dowrich
Written by Lance Dowrich, winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2016, A Plethora of Dead Ends is a collection of short stories based in Trinidad and Tobago.
The book takes its name from Samson Street which is a street with two dead ends. The main street character is Ethelbert G Sandiford who navigates her dead-end life with a mixture of luck and ingenuity. His family also displays similar traits for several comedic storylines.
https://amzn.to/3uQrKN2
5. Dark Trinity (Black Akashic)
“Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original black anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book is made up of all-new stories, each set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the geographic area of the book. As seen here, the Caribbean offers no shelter from the delightful terror of dark fiction.
https://amzn.to/3M5pUOe
6. Miguel Street
by VS Naipaul
A well-known Caribbean classic. Set during World War II and told by an anonymous but precociously observant neighborhood boy, Miguel Street is a work of mercurial mood swings, by turns sweetly melancholic and anarchically funny. It overflows with life on every page.
https://amzn.to/36qVqas
7. Golden Child
by Claire Adams
Golden Child is a 2019 novel by Claire Adam. Set in rural Trinidad, it won the Desmond Elliott Prize and was selected for a 2019 BBC list of the 100 “most inspirational” novels.
https://amzn.to/3vIkNgD
What local books have you read recently and would you recommend?