I picked this book up in a 3 for 2 offer at Waterstones one day after seeing it advertised on the tube. (Yes I am a book marketers dream customer!)
The book was nominated for the Orange Prize and the author is part Trinidadian - the location of the story. On the cover it says it is a love letter to Trinidad - a place I've never been - and it may well be - but it doesn't make it sound all that great.
The story centres around Sabine Harwood a French lady married to an English man who emigrates from England to Trinidad in the 1950s - they were the "last colonials". It is split in to sectins, the present day follwed by the 50s, 60s and 70s. The present day sections are told in the third person but the 50s, 60s and 70s sections are told by Sabine herself and I much preferred the first person narrative. I couldn't connect with the anonymous narrator but as soon as the character took over i was hooked. The book is a good one. The story is I guess Trinidad's story in a way- or at least the last 60 years of it . I did find some of the language a bit vulgar which spoiled it a little bit. I don't mind any language in context I just think there could have been nicer way to say some things.
*pic from amazon
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