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2022 Longlist

A Million Aunties

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ABOUT
THE BOOK

Seeking solitude after a personal tragedy upends his world, American-born artist Chris travels to his mother’s homeland, Jamaica, in a bid to find peace. He expects to spend his time painting in solitude, coming to terms with his loss and the fractured relationship with his father. But instead he discovers a new extended and complicated “family”, with their own startling stories, including a love triangle. The people he meets help him to heal, even as he supports them in unexpected ways, through his art.

Told from different points of view, A Million Aunties is a compelling novel about unlikely love, friendship, and community, with several surprises along the way. The story takes place against the backdrop of rural Jamaica, New York City and Paris.

 

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Alecia
McKenzie

Alecia McKenzie is a Jamaican writer currently based in France. Her first collection of short stories, Satellite City, and her novel Sweetheart both won Commonwealth literary prizes. She is the co-editor of Where We Started: Stories of Living Between Worlds – an anthology. Her articles have appeared in The Wall StreetThe GuardianNew African magazineBlack EnterpriseOpera Now and others. She designed the cover artwork for some of her books.

Alecia McKenzie is a Jamaican writer currently based in France. Her first collection of short stories, Satellite City, and her novel Sweetheart both won Commonwealth literary prizes. She is the co-editor of Where We Started: Stories of Living Between Worlds – an anthology. Her articles have appeared in The Wall StreetThe GuardianNew African magazineBlack EnterpriseOpera Now and others. She designed the cover artwork for some of her books.

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NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

“Alecia McKenzie engages her painter’s eye in this novel which weaves in and out of Jamaica, USA, and France and leaves us with a very kaleidoscopic, distinctive, and enticing canvas of characters and events. A Million Aunties proves that Jamaican aunties don’t have to be flesh and blood; they will auntie whoever in their circle needs space to heal, love, create, and become centred.
Through Aunt Della’s eyes we get a peep into the lives of a riveting array of characters who crisscross and connect because of love and hate and who refract and reflect the pain, sorrow and joy that is the human condition. Jamaica Library Service, Jamaica

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
17/11/2020
Country
Jamaica
Original Language
English
Publisher
Blouse and Skirt Books, Blue Moon Publishing

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