By Donna Hemans

Migrating from the Caribbean for a more prosperous life elsewhere—whether in Europe or North America, whether for education or work—is often the subject of Caribbean literature. Four of the seven novels in this installment of my literary travels across the Caribbean depict life within the islands, without discussion of alternative lives in more prosperous countries. The Caribbean we see in each of these novels is not idyllic. As Derek Walcott described in his 1992 Nobel Prize lecture: “The Caribbean is not an idyll, not to its natives. They draw their working strength from it organically, like trees, like the sea almond or the spice laurel of the heights.” These novels are about survival and sacrifice, which each author tackles in unique ways. 

Trinidad: Hungry Ghosts, Kevin Jared Hosein

I dipped back into Trinidad to read the well-reviewed Hungry Ghosts about Hindu families living in 1940s Trinidad. Set around a barrack—a dilapidated wood and tin building that houses multiple families—and the nearby Changoor estate, Hungry Ghosts is part mystery and part family saga. The Saroop family—Hans, Shweta and their son, Krishna—is desperate to move from the barrack but they lack the funds to buy into a neighboring housing development. When the wealthy Dalton Changoor goes missing, his wife asks Hans to take on extra duties as night watchman. Hans succumbs to the comforts of the estate, and his actions lead to deadly consequences for his family. 

St. Vincent and the Grenadines: The Moon is Following Me, Cecil Browne

Browne’s slim collection of short stories centers on village life in the 1970s in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The title story features a young boy nearing the end of his secondary school years who falls in love for the first time. In “Take for Two” Archie finds temporary work in America, and, before he leaves, asks a young woman he is courting what gift he should bring for her when he returns. When she asks for a “special dress,” Archie buys a wedding dress, and is stunned to find he has made a colossal mistake. The stories capture the essence of island village life in a bygone era without veering into nostalgia. 

Dominica: Voyage in the Dark, Jean Rhys

Jean Rhys’ Voyage in the Dark, an autobiographical novel that explores a young woman’s move from Dominica to England and her struggle to settle in to her new home, is both unsettling and enlightening. Nineteen-year-old Anna Morgan works as a showgirl, traveling to a series of towns and living in boarding rooms that are a far cry from her former life in Dominica. When Anna’s affair with a wealthy, older man ends, she falls into depression and prostitution, and questions how she has wrecked her life. Though Voyage in the Dark was first published in 1934, reading it now is a reminder of colonialism’s lingering effects and xenophobia towards immigrants who’ve left their homes to make a life in a wealthier country. 

Martinique: Texaco, Patrick Chamoiseau

In Texaco, Patrick Chamoiseau creates a mythic village called Texaco that fights to remain independent from a nearby city. Marie-Sophie, who found the village, has taken on the herculean task to protect the village from the unwelcome development. Using French and Creole and a wide cast of characters, Chamoiseau combines historical events and folktales to depict the village’s struggle to remain independent and prevent developers from leveling it. 

Guadeloupe: The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana, Maryse Conde

Raised in Guadeloupe by their mother, twins Ivan and Ivana have an unusual and disturbing bond. Ivana is dreamy, gifted and obedient, while Ivan is the opposite, a disobedient and defiant young man. In their late teen years, their mother makes contact with their father, a dancer from Mali, and they live with him before moving to Paris, where they become involved in a violent attack. Translated from French, The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana is a satirical look at radicalization of youth. 

St. Kitts and Nevis: Neither Out Far Nor In Deep, Leah T. Williams

Written for young adults, Leah T. Williams’ Neither Out Far Nor in Deep follows a seventeen-year-old boy who is sent to live with his grandfather in St. Kitts after yet another suspension from school for fighting. While Kadeem believes this last fight is not his fault, his mother doesn’t give him an opportunity to defend his actions. In St. Kitts, Kadeem is without the comforts to which he has grown accustomed, and he has to learn how to adapt to his grandfather’s eccentric ways and the norms of Caribbean life.  

Antigua: Annie John, Jamaica Kincaid

In Jamaica Kincaid’s coming-of-age novel, Annie John, Annie laments the loss of her childhood. As Annie approaches her teenage years, she finds that she is no longer the center of her mother’s life. Long accustomed to living in her mother’s shadow—bathing with her mother, dressing like her mother—Annie rebels against the changes and the new expectations put upon her as she nears womanhood. Even as Annie finishes secondary school and prepares to leave Antigua, the loss of her mother’s love is too great for her to bear: “And so now there they are together and here I am apart. I don’t see them now the way I used to, and I don’t love them now the way I used to. The bitter thing about it is that they are just the same and it is I who have changed, so all the things I used to feel are as false as the teeth in my father’s head.”

Donna Hemans is the author River Woman, Tea by the Sea, and The House of Plain Truth (forthcoming from Zibby Books in 2023). In 2015, she won the Lignum Vitae Una Marson Award for Adult Literature for the unpublished manuscript of Tea by the Sea and was named co-winner of the 2003-4 Towson University Prize for Literature for River Woman. Donna’s short fiction and essays have appeared in Slice, Electric Literature, Ms. Magazine, The Rumpus, Crab Orchard Review, among others. Donna lives in Maryland and is the owner of DC Writers Room, a co-working studio for writers based in Washington, D.C.