Written in a blend of creole tongues, these inter-linked big-hearted tales are haunting and compelling, with splintered characters tied by blood and history. Activate your imagination and engage in the magical realism and folklore that is the reality of daily Trinidadian life. Immerse yourself in the cadences and experience the porous divide between real and imagined and the consequences of seeking out happiness in a culture so rich and vibrant.
She heard him thundering down the front steps while everything around her – the entire kitchen – began to dissolve into tiny yellow dots, like the chicken feed she and Yasmeen once fed to their fluffy little common-fowl pets; stroking, loving, fattening them while knowing full well that, soon enough, Pa would take them away, to be plucked and gutted. But that would not happen to my daughters, Salma decided, as she sank to the floor. If Allah saved her life today, she’d never ask her girls to be ‘good’ and she’d never marry them off – they would have to choose when to leave her, for she would never, ever leave them. In fact, she swore, as her eyes closed, she would teach Nadya and Abby to be ‘bad’, to fight for their happiness like their lives depended on it, like no one was coming to save them. Because in the end, no one was.
