Bøger i Caribbean Modern Classics serien

A bleak portrayal of life on the Dungle--the rubbish heap where the very poorest squat--this beautifully poetic, existentialist novel turns an unwavering eye to life in the Jamaican ghetto. By interweaving the stories of Dinah, a prostitute who can never quite escape the circumstances of her life, and Brother Solomon, a respected Rastafarian leader who allows his followers to think that a ship is on its way to take them home to Ethiopia, this brutally poetic story creates intense and tragic characters who struggle to come to grips with the absurdity of life. As these downtrodden protagonists shed their illusions and expectations, they realize that there is no escape from meaninglessness, and eventually gain a special kind of dignity and stoic awareness about life and the universe.

On an inward-looking island dominated by the Catholic Church, John Lestrade mourns both the death of friends and the inauthentic, suffocating quality of his own life. When he feels he can no longer find solace in his regular means of escape--a room on a hill--he forsakes his self-imposed exile and finds himself drawn to action and defiance. Opening himself up to change, John discovers hope and gleans the possibility of change and an escape from the inauthentic. Originally published in 1968, this intense and minimalist novel engages philosophical ideas, religious tradition, and colonial consciousness.

Told through the memories of John Campbell, an old man whose life goes back to the Morant Bay rebellion of 1865, this novel is an intensely vivid narrative of the history of Jamaican nationalism. In the present, John Campbell's grandnephew Garth listens eagerly to the old man's story, gathering information and advice for his generation's nationalist movement. First published in 1949, this novel is a pioneering work both in exploiting the rhythms of Caribbean language and recounting the making of Jamaican national consciousness from the perspective of the black majority. It explores the conflict between a violent and peaceful means in the struggle for social justice.

This novel, set in a yard which is a microcosm of Kingston slum life, sets out as Mais himself said to give "a true picture of the real Jamaica and the dreadful condition of the working classes."