This Other Island - Libroj.org

Lingvo: English

Eldonita je 16-a de decembro 2021 de Bookouture.

ISBN:: 978-1-80019-362-8

(1 recenzo)

St Lucia, 28 July 1961. The day my father and mother boarded a ship called the Carlotta C. The day my story began, the day my truth started to disappear…

When Yvette receives a call saying her estranged father, Joe, is fighting for his life in hospital, she rushes to his side. She’s determined to have him back in her life and to forgive him for walking out on her and her mother so many years ago. But when she arrives she doesn’t find the larger-than-life father she remembers. Joe seems broken; haunted by the past. So, when he begs Yvette to help him find the truth, she knows she must…

Since stepping off the ship that brought him with Yvette’s mother, Doli, from the sunny, picturesque island of St. Lucia, with its tranquil Caribbean seas and air fragrant with the scent of tropical fruits, to start new lives in …

St Lucia, 28 July 1961. The day my father and mother boarded a ship called the Carlotta C. The day my story began, the day my truth started to disappear…

When Yvette receives a call saying her estranged father, Joe, is fighting for his life in hospital, she rushes to his side. She’s determined to have him back in her life and to forgive him for walking out on her and her mother so many years ago. But when she arrives she doesn’t find the larger-than-life father she remembers. Joe seems broken; haunted by the past. So, when he begs Yvette to help him find the truth, she knows she must…

Since stepping off the ship that brought him with Yvette’s mother, Doli, from the sunny, picturesque island of St. Lucia, with its tranquil Caribbean seas and air fragrant with the scent of tropical fruits, to start new lives in a cold and unwelcoming Britain, Joe has carried a dark secret. For years, he’s believed he might have killed a man on the ship. A man who had had feelings for Doli too. A man who could perhaps help Yvette answer questions she didn’t even know needed answering.

When she asks her mother for help with tracking him down, Doli is uncharacteristically quiet. Yvette wonders if finding the truth might break their relationship, but she can’t stop; daren’t let her papa down. As she sorts through old passports and shipping records, Yvette knows she has to unravel this secret history of love and betrayal, loyalty and sacrifice.

Will uncovering the truth tear their fragile family apart or bring them back together

1 eldono

Stephanie Jane recenzis This Other Island de Steffanie Edward

An intriguing debut

4 steloj

This Other Island is Steffanie Edward's first novel, an intriguing debut exploring race and personal identity, and how seemingly small decisions can lead to huge consequences. The novel is told from several points of view with each character having a distinctive voice which I appreciated as the complexities of the plot, especially in the second half of the book, needed most of my focus and concentration. This Other Island takes us back to the post-war years, when people from the West Indies were invited to help rebuild Britain but, despite giving up their existing lives and families in order to do so, were frequently treated with racist contempt. Edward switches between the 'Windrush' generation of Dolina and Joe as well as Doli's sister, Agnes, left behind on St Lucia, and the next generation personified by Yvette, who mostly grew up in England.

I liked how the West Indian influence informs …

This Other Island is Steffanie Edward's first novel, an intriguing debut exploring race and personal identity, and how seemingly small decisions can lead to huge consequences. The novel is told from several points of view with each character having a distinctive voice which I appreciated as the complexities of the plot, especially in the second half of the book, needed most of my focus and concentration. This Other Island takes us back to the post-war years, when people from the West Indies were invited to help rebuild Britain but, despite giving up their existing lives and families in order to do so, were frequently treated with racist contempt. Edward switches between the 'Windrush' generation of Dolina and Joe as well as Doli's sister, Agnes, left behind on St Lucia, and the next generation personified by Yvette, who mostly grew up in England.

I liked how the West Indian influence informs each character to a stronger or lesser extent depending on which island they most identify with. The question of identity is also what drives the mystery at the heart of the novel. Are we our biological parents' children or does the person who raises us have more influence on who we become? The tangled web facing Yvette requires a lot of unravelling and I did sometimes wonder whether learning the whole truth was going to turn out to be such a good idea after all. I'd recommend This Other Island to fans of family drama authors such as Amanda Prowse.