Inside Flap copy
"A magnificent achievement-moving, eloquent, defiant. It is a major milestone in the cultural history of black people. Mr. Thelwell has put us all in his debt."--Chinua Achebe
"Masterly.... One of the very few novels worthy of the black experience in our age."--Harold Bloom
"Thelwell's writing is lush, his imagery powerful, his characters full of depth, his attention to detail admirable."--Los Angeles Times
"An authentic and exceedingly rich portrait of Jamaican life beyond the tourist hotels."--The New York Times
"Destined to become a classic, and one that our children can be proud of."--The Black Scholar
"A fine novel, rich in language, deep in characterization, compelling in action, and provocative in it vision. In its way, it is a kind of novelized reggae."--The Boston Globe
"The most authentic and evocative portrait of the Jamaican poor--the rich and sustaining vernacular of their culture, the sheer heroism of their economic existence--that I have seen."--Jarvis Anderson, The New Republic
Born in Jamaica, Michael Thelwell was the founding chairman of the W.E.B. DuBois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he continues to teach. He has published a number of works, including two noted collections of essays, Duties, Pleasures, and Conflicts: Essays in Struggle and Hopes and Impediments. He is currently working on a biography of the former Black Panther leader Stokely Carmichael, now known as Kwame Ture.
