Augustown

WINNER OF THE OCM BOCAS PRIZE FOR CARIBBEAN LITERATURE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE, THE GREEN CARNATION PRIZE, and the HISTORICAL WRITERS AWARD

‘This is my ultimate beach read. It has an explosive beginning that draws in a reader in the best way, excellent storytelling, incredible prose. It will keep you absorbed until the sun goes down’ Reni Eddo-Lodge, author of Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race

One April day in Augustown, Jamaica. Ma Taffy, old and blind, sits in her usual spot on the veranda. No matter how the world tilts around her, come hurricane or riot, she knows everything that goes on in this small community. Which is why, when her six-year-old nephew returns home from school with his dreadlocks shorn, she realises that trouble won’t be far behind.

And so she tells him the story of Alexander Bedward, the flying preacherman. She remembers what happened to the Rastaman and his helper, Bongo Moody; she thinks of Soft-Paw, the leader of the Angola gang, and what lies beneath her house. For trouble is brewing once more among the ramshackle lanes of Augustown, and as Ma Taffy knows, each day contains much more than its own hours, or minutes, or seconds.

In fact, each day contains all of history . . .