Salt_Lovelace
1998 Shortlist

Salt

ABOUT
THE BOOK

Guinea John, mythical ancestor of Blackpeople in Trinidad, put two corncobs under his armpits and flew away from the scene of his enslavement, back to Africa. But his descendants, having eaten salt, were too heavy to fly and would not follow….
One hundred years after official Emancipation, the diverse people of Trinidad—Africa, Asian, and European—still have not settled into the New World. Two men set out to free them from “old captivities” and to welcome them to their island homeland. Around them swirl a cast of unforgettable men and women, each telling his own story in his own voice, each striving with passion and wit to make sense of life in a still-young country where the roles of enslaved and landowner still linger, but “the sky, the sea, every green leaf and tangle of vines sing freedom.” (From Persea Books)

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Earl
Lovelace

Earl Lovelace is a major Caribbean writer, one of the few of his generation to have lived in and written almost exclusively from the region. With sharp observation and even sharper wit, his writing pulses with the rhythm, flow and vibrancy of the lives of “ordinary” people, whose culture and language he champions. Lovelace explores the intricacies of his multicultural society as it grapples with a legacy of slavery, indentureship and colonialism and faces the challenges of independence and new nationhood, and he does so with compassion and true understanding. In this brief but rich biography, Funso Aiyejina explores the writer and his work with the intimacy of a friend and the perceptiveness of a scholar. Lovelace himself is as storied as one of his characters, and the man and his life shine through. This biography is essential reading for any student of Caribbean literature, and will be equally compelling for a general reader. (From The University of the West Indies Press)

Earl Lovelace is a major Caribbean writer, one of the few of his generation to have lived in and written almost exclusively from the region. With sharp observation and even sharper wit, his writing pulses with the rhythm, flow and vibrancy of the lives of “ordinary” people, whose culture and language he champions. Lovelace explores the intricacies of his multicultural society as it grapples with a legacy of slavery, indentureship and colonialism and faces the challenges of independence and new nationhood, and he does so with compassion and true understanding. In this brief but rich biography, Funso Aiyejina explores the writer and his work with the intimacy of a friend and the perceptiveness of a scholar. Lovelace himself is as storied as one of his characters, and the man and his life shine through. This biography is essential reading for any student of Caribbean literature, and will be equally compelling for a general reader. (From The University of the West Indies Press)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Date published
23/09/1996
Country
Trinidad and Tobago
Original Language
English
Author
Publisher
Faber & Faber, Persea Books

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