Barbados

Facing North

“Ten intriguing tales from the Caribbean island of Barbados—an antidote to the daily farrago of celebrity lives served up by the media. This book celebrates the true 'homo ordinarius' and his response to personal, natural and man-made challenges. A well prepared potpourri lovingly served with gentle humour and a dash of nostalgia.”

“Reminiscent of some of Mavis Gallant's short fiction, the stories—all good reads—deal with the serious current issues of politics, economics, race, sex, land appropriation, and identity...these are hopeful stories.” - Robert Edison Sandiford

”[Edison T. Williams] is a story teller! He has the technique of gripping the reader from the beginning. [His] endings are classic Somerset Maugham/O. Henry. I have my favourites among the stories: 'Desmond Lola and Bassman' is fascinating...'The New Sybaris' is a riveting read... 'Island Man' is captivating... but I really loved them all.” - Peter Laurie

View on Amazon (US) | (UK)

Born in the Briar Patch

“The pretty young housemaid Nellie Peterkin catches the eye of the plantation owner John Bottomsley and at the age of fourteen becomes his mistress. Shortly after she finds out she is pregnant, the plantation owner’s wife announces her pregnancy. John Bottomsley forces Nellie into a pact to take her child should his wife have another miscarriage.

Emily Bottomsley grows up believing she is the daughter of John and Sarah Bottomsley. Just after marrying a British lawyer, she becomes pregnant and gives birth to a child who is obviously not Caucasian and whom her mother immediately banishes from the plantation. Confused by this strange thing that has taken hold of her life, Emily turns to her nanny's mother for answers and the strange phenomenon of 'striking back' is explained to the bewildered young woman.”

View on Amazon (US) | (UK)

In Time of Need

A collection of award-winning Barbadian stories that showcase the controversial and often hidden aspects of the supposed Caribbean paradise.

The themes of love and relationships, domestic and emotional abuse, politics in the rum shop, sex tourism and human trafficking and more, are narrated in a satirical and humorous style, often through the voices of innocent and naïve characters.

“Issue-based writing that doesn't seem preachy or pedantic. There is humour. There is full humanity. There is certainly a love of Barbados and the Caribbean evidenced through a willingness to peek beneath the paradisical surface, poke beneath the tropical facade and embrace, warts and all, the society that inhabits our dynamic island and archipelago.” —Ayesha Gibson

View on Amazon | Bookshop.org | SecondSale used book

Vaucluse

“Vaucluse is the story of the struggle for freedom versus the fight against emancipation during a period of great turmoil in Barbados. It is 1816 and the planters are determined to maintain their enviable lifestyles. Many plantations are heavily indebted and are going into Chancery.

Henry Peter Simmons, owner of the prosperous Vaucluse plantation, claims that ‘the negro is not yet fitted for his freedom’ and fights against abolition. However, in his will he left the plantation to his ‘two natural coloured and reputed’ sons whom he manumitted before the end of slavery. One former slave referred to Simmons in his own will as a ‘kind master.’

Who was the real Henry Peter Simmons? The profit-driven anti-abolitionist or the kind master? You decide.”

View on Amazon (US) | (UK)

Redemption in Indigo

“Utterly delightful! The impish love child of Amos Tutuola [famed for his African folk tales] & Gabriel García Márquez [known as one of the best writers of the 20th century].” —Nalo Hopkinson

Bursting with humor and rich in fantastic detail, Redemption in Indigo is a clever, contemporary fairy tale that introduces readers to a dynamic new voice in Caribbean literature. Lord's world of spider tricksters and indigo immortals, inspired in part by a Senegalese folk tale [incorporating the Afro-Barbadian culture], will feel instantly familiar—but Paama's adventures are fresh, surprising, and utterly original.

Paama's husband is a fool and a glutton. Bad enough that he followed her to her parents' home in the village of Makendha, now he's disgraced himself by murdering livestock and stealing corn. When Paama leaves him for good, she attracts the attention of the undying ones—powerful spirits called the djombi—who present her with a gift: the Chaos Stick, which allows her to manipulate the subtle forces of the world. Unfortunately, a wrathful djombi with indigo skin believes this power should be his and his alone.

Karen Lord's debut novel, which won the prestigious Frank Collymore Literary Prize in Barbados, the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and the Mythopoetic Award, is an intricately woven tale of adventure, magic, and the power of the human spirit.

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

View on Amazon | Bookshop.org (US) | SecondSale used book

The Best of All Possible Worlds

Named one of the Best Books of the Year by Buzzfeed

“Reads like smooth jazz comfort food, deceptively familiar & easy going down, but subtly subversive.” - LA Review

“A fascinating & thoughtful novel that examines adaptation, social change, & human relationships. I’ve not read anything quite like it, which makes it that rare beast: a true original.” - Kate Elliott

“A rewarding, touching and often funny exploration of the forms and functions of human culture.”- SFX

”A proud and reserved alien society finds its homeland destroyed in an unprovoked act of aggression, and the survivors have no choice but to reach out to the indigenous humanoids of their adopted world, to whom they are distantly related. They wish to preserve their cherished way of life, but doing so may mean changing their culture forever. Working together to save this vanishing race, a man and a woman from two clashing societies will uncover ancient mysteries with far-reaching ramifications. And as their mission hangs in the balance, the unlikely team—one cool and cerebral, the other fiery and impulsive—just may find in each other their own destinies . . . and a force that transcends all.”

“The Best of All Possible Worlds poses an interesting question: What parts of you do you fight to preserve when everything you know suddenly changes?” - Assoc. Press

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

View on Amazon (US) | (UK)

In the Castle of My Skin

“Written through the eyes of a young boy, Lamming portrays the social, racial, political and urban struggles with which Barbados continues to grapple even with some thirty-three years of political independence from Britain.

‘They won't know you, the you that's hidden somewhere in the castle of your skin.’

Nine-year-old G. leads a life of quiet mischief, crab catching, teasing preachers and playing among the pumpkin vines. His sleepy fishing village in 1930s Barbados is overseen by the English landlord who lives on the hill, just as their 'Little England' is watched over by the Mother Country. Yet gradually, G. finds himself awakening to the violence and injustice that lurk beneath the apparent order of things. As the world he knows begins to crumble, revealing the bruising secret at its heart, he is spurred ever closer to a life-changing decision.

Lyrical and unsettling, George Lamming's autobiographical coming-of-age novel is a story of tragic innocence amid the collapse of colonial rule.”

“Rich and riotous.” - The Times

(Group read suggestion from Mia DeGiovine Chaveco, book club co-founder.)

View on Amazon (US) | (UK)

It So Happen

Written in Caribbean-English (a localized non-standard form of English specific to each country of the Commonwealth Caribbean), this book with its stories of a village in Barbados is truly a Bajan classic.

“It So Happen focuses on the Barbadian/Caribbean village and the characters found there. Callender's fictional village is full of eccentrics who he exposes in a series of moral fables.

Saga Boy and Jasper prepare for a grand stick-fight. Big Joe will do anything for the girl he loves. All the men are determined to defeat Marie in the rum drinking competition, and Pa John, the Obeah Man is foiled by his own wicket spell.

This is a must read for every local and visitor alike. Students of language and culture will find in it a wealth of material.”

View on Amazon (US) | (UK)

Natural Rebels

Although we are learning a lot from historians about the lives of slaves in the United States, we still know little about slavery in the Caribbean. Hilary Beckles's book on the social, economic, and labor history of slave women in Barbados, from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-19th century, is a major addition to this literature.

Drawing on contemporary documents and records, newspapers, and personal correspondence, Beckles reveals how slave women were central to the plantation economy of Barbados. They had two kinds of value for sugar planters: they could work just as hard as men, and they could literally reproduce the slave class.

Beckles details the daily lives of slave women in conditions of extreme exploitation. They suffered from harsh conditions, cruel punishments, malnutrition, disease, high mortality, and fear of abandonment when they were too old to work. He described the various categories and responsibilities of slaves, and the roles of children in the slave economy. Beckles looks at family structures and the complexities of interracial unions. He also shows how female slaves regularly resisted slavery, using both violent and nonviolent means. They never accommodated themselves to the system; as natural rebels, they fought in any way they could for survival.

View on Amazon | Bookshop.org (US) | SecondSale used book

Westminster's Jewel

“Westminster’s Jewel is a rare exposé on the history and evolution of Barbadian society that will captivate both Barbadians and citizens of the UK unfamiliar with the history of British colonialism in the Caribbean. The book is an interesting mix of narrative and poetry, done in the author’s own elegant—and at times caustic—style.

It presents the Barbados story in an easy, non-academic fashion—from the arrival of the British in 1627 to the present; and offers critical—sometimes biting—commentary on current social norms.

Westminster’s Jewel is one of the few books that combines local history (in easy reading style) with critical commentary and poetry to tell the story of Barbados from the inception to the present. The Barbadian will discover things about his society he hadn’t noticed before; the non-Barbadian will learn about the sordid history of enslavement and colonialism and its legacy on the island.

From a ‘jewel’ in the imperial crown, Barbados, today, is a struggling economy, dependent on tourism and an ever-declining sugar industry. The jewel has lost its sparkle, even as the sun has set on the Empire. The ravages of slavery and colonialism are never far from the eye. But the history of slavery and colonialism has not only left an economic legacy, it has also left a major psychological legacy as well: a people with a woeful lack of self-confidence—who live in the shadows of those who once dominated their lives. Westminster’s Jewel seeks to tell that story—the story of Barbados from settlement by the British in 1627 up to the present.”

(Group read suggestion from Mia DeGiovine Chaveco, book club co-founder.)

View on Amazon (US) | (UK)