THE HUMAN ORIGINS OF BEATRICE PORTER AND OTHER ESS PB – SORAYA PALMER

A Libreria Book of the Year 2023 A beautiful ode to the power of storytelling, this novel is steeped in the folklore of the Caribbean and weaves a powerful narrative of identity, trauma, resilience and hope Eleanor Shearer, author of River Sing Me Home Zora and Sasha Porter don t know much of their Jamaican father Nigel s and Trinidadian mother Beatrice s pasts. What they do know: the mythic stories of Nigel s flight to America on the string of a purple balloon, the violent histories in Beatrice s book of Anansi Stories, that Nigel had a brother, once, and that Beatrice has a tangle of silvery scars on her back. With their parents marriage falling apart, the pair navigate their own relationships and secrets – Zora has impure thoughts about a jock, and Sasha drinks cheap beer with a girl who binds her chest. A celebration of the power of stories, this startling debut presents a tale of slippery contradictions and an examination of the limits of resilience.