Praise
‘Amanda Smyth shows how easy it is for a white foreign man to get lost in a small, intensely mixed society, a society men like him once had a hand increasing. Every page in this novel feels eerie and uncomfortable, as it touches on difficult trust about love, sex and crime in the twenty-first century Caribbean.’
Monique Roffey (Mermaid of Black Conch)
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A tremendously compelling novel. The West Indies may look like an advertisement for paradise, but it is only tourists who call it a paradise. Amanda Smyth opens a window onto the problems faced by Trinidad, and combines a knuckle whitening thriller with a thoughtful meditation on exile, homeland and belonging. Pages of great lyric beauty combine with a deadly accuracy of phrase and observation; Smyth is a gifted writer and we are lucky to have her.’
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A hugely talented storyteller,. Ina Kind of Eden Smyth has written an exquisite novel of fear, loss and acceptance. With Trinidad and Tobago as the setting, the prose is sometimes luscious and exotic,; sometimes stark and lame unbearably tense. The whole thing ripples with beauty and menace as she draws us deeper into the complex lives of her characters. What begins as the tale of a man in mid life crisis, ends up packing a shocking and sinister punch.’
Reviews
Review 1
‘Her sparse yet evocative prose cut straight to the heart of what such issues can truly mean at the human level.’