by Esi Edugyan
First published 2023
A mother watches her child carefully after they share an unusual meal that leaves unexpected consequences. Two siblings face a choice about sudden money while old debts and future possibilities weigh on their minds. A daughter remembers the baboon her family left behind when they moved to their new town. A woman falls into a romance with a photographer whose boundaries shift and whose cheerfulness masks contradictions. A schoolgirl waits for her absent mother to return while wrestling with feelings she cannot name. News travels across oceans when a hunter dies, reaching his cousin whose own relationship begins to crack under the weight of distant tragedy. An office worker finds herself walking alongside a lost grandmother on a journey neither planned. After years away, a woman returns to Jamaica to face the sister who stayed behind, stirring up old wounds and bringing back both laughter and pain. A family discovers that no amount of preparation can shield them from grief's impact. Two Black girls navigate the space between childhood and womanhood in a school where they are the only ones like themselves.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: emotional-journey, found-family
Setting: Jamaica
Period: 21st-century
224 pages · Paperback · McClelland & Stewart