Join us in welcoming Curdella Forbes and Alex Wheatle as they discuss their books A Tall History of Sugar and Kemosha of the Caribbean!
About A Tall History of Sugar:
A haunting, epic Caribbean love story, reminiscent of García Márquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera.
A Tall History of Sugar tells the story of Moshe Fisher, a man who was “born without skin,” so that no one is able to tell what race he belongs to; and Arrienne Christie, his quixotic soul mate who makes it her duty in life to protect Moshe from the social and emotional consequences of his strange appearance.
The narrative begins with Moshe’s birth in the late 1950s, four years before Jamaica’s independence from colonial rule, and ends in the era of what Forbes calls “the fall of empire,” the era of Brexit and Donald Trump. The historical trajectory layers but never overwhelms the scintillating love story as the pair fight to establish their own view of loving, against the moral force of the colonial “plantation” and its legacies that continue to affect their lives and the lives of those around them.
Written in lyrical, luminous prose that spans the range of Jamaican Englishes, this remarkable story follows the couple’s mysterious love affair from childhood to adulthood, from the haunted environs of rural Jamaica to the city of Kingston, and then to England—another haunted locale in Forbes’s rendition.
Following on the footsteps of Marlon James’s debut novel, John Crow’s Devil, which Akashic Books published in 2005, we are delighted to introduce another lion of Jamaican literature with the publication of A Tall History of Sugar.
About Kemosha of the Caribbean:
Kemosha and her brother have lived their whole lives in slavery. Sold away to work in lawless Port Royal, Kemosha takes her chance to escape brutal treatment. With fortune on her side, Kemosha befriends Ravenhide, a man with a mysterious past who teaches her the art of swordfighting, and introduces her to the beautiful runaway Isabella.
Yet Kemosha's greatest test yet is upon the deck of the Satisfaction: the notorious Captain Morgan’s ship. His next adventure on the high seas could be the making of Kemosha – and her one chance to earn enough pieces of eight to buy the freedom of her brother...
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Curdella Forbes was born in Jamaica. She lives in Takoma Park, Maryland, and teaches at Howard University. She is the author of A Tall History of Sugar. Forbes is a professor of Caribbean literature and has published four previous works of fiction: Songs of Silence, A Permanent Freedom, Ghosts, and a children’s book, Flying with Icarus and Other Stories. She began her teaching career at the University of the West Indies, Mona, where she was also a writer-in-residence.
Alex Alphonso Wheatle MBE (3 January 1963) is an award winning black British novelist of Jamaican heritage and has been described as one of the UK’s most exciting writers.
Wheatle spent much of his childhood in a Surrey children's home. At sixteen he was a founder member of the Crucial Rocker sound system and his DJ name was Yardman Irie. He wrote lyrics about his observations of everyday Brixton life. By 1980 Wheatle was residing in a social services hostel in Brixton, South London. He witnessed and lived through the 1981 Brixton riots, its precursors and aftermath. Wheatle was briefly incarcerated following the Brixton riots. While serving his sentence he read authors like Chester Himes, Richard Wright, C. L. R. James and John Steinbeck. He once built speaker boxes for local sound systems to help him through unemployment.
He has since been called upon to talk on the subject of the Brixton riots, most prominently in the 2006 BBC programme "Battle for Brixton". His early books are based on experiences from his life living in Brixton as a teenager and his time in social services care. Wheatle was awarded London Arts Board New Writers Award for East of Acre Lane. In 2008, Wheatle was awarded the MBE for services to literature in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. He is a member of English PEN. Wheatle's debut novel, Brixton Rock, was adapted for the stage and performed at the Young Vic in July 2010. He wrote and performed UPRISING, a one man play based on his own life at TARA ARTS STUDIOS, Wandsworth, London. Wheatle lives in London.
A Tall History of Sugar and Kemosha of the Caribbean will be available at Lost City Books!