The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid: Book Review
What would happen if white people started turning brown, one by one? Mohsin Hamid explores the question in his latest novel.
Freedom and Death by Nikos Kazantzakis: Book Review
"Captain Wildboar was his apt nickname in Megalokastro. With his sudden rages, his deep, dark, round eyes, his short, stubborn neck and that jutting fang, the heavy, broad-boned man was really like a wild boar, rearing for the spring."
The View From Belmont by Kevyn Alan Arthur
The View From Belmont raises interesting questions of race and gender amid the barbarousness of a slave-owning society. The dual narrative was a promising technique, but it didn't feel fully realised to me. I'd have liked more of 1990s Trinidad…
Book Review: Cambridge by Caryl Phillips
This dual narrative set in a 19th-century Caribbean island is an interesting exploration of a critical period, but the narratives feel unbalanced: we spend a lot of time immersed in the prejudices of the plantation owner's daughter, while the account…
Race & Class in Jamaican Fiction: Dog-Heart by Diana McCaulay
Dog-Heart tells the story of two Jamaicans from very different worlds. Sahara is a light-skinned “uptown” woman who runs a successful Kingston restaurant. Dexter is a poor, dark-skinned boy from the “ghetto” neighbourhood of Jacob’s Pen.
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
How can human relationships be formed without shared memories? Can mathematical order overcome the chaos of a life without memory? Yoko Ogawa's novel explores these fascinating themes through the simple story of a professor and his housekeeper.
Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde
Vagabonds! is a startlingly original Nigerian debut novel that introduces us to a compelling cast of marginalised characters struggling to survive and thrive on the chaotic streets of Lagos.
Lote by Shola van Reinhold #ReadIndies
Lote, a debut novel by Shola van Reinhold, is an intelligent, beautifully written piece of literary fiction that explores issues of art, beauty, race, sexuality and more.
Pick of the Crop by Nailah Folami Imoja
The annual calypso competition is a big deal in Barbados, so when I saw a novel about it on a recent trip to a second-hand bookshop, I wanted to give it a try. It has a promising start, but the…