By Such a Parting Light

Disaster catapults three children into the care

of their Caribbean grandparents, before another relative, elusive and perhaps

unstable, makes a conflicting claim to guardianship. Balancing domestic

calamity against her own compulsive writing, Aria faces physical and

psychological threats, as a pandemic creeps up on the world and the country

moves into lockdown. By Such a Parting Light offers a humorous and

poignant tale of aging and of coming of age, and it takes a mischievous

approach to the multiple meanings of retirement.



A must for all readers of Caribbean and island

literature - for readers with a taste for realism that blends seamlessly into

strains of the marvelous and gothic - the novel's themes of loss and

separation, love and resilience, are universally appealing. The book personalizes local and international

violence and terror by bringing it all home to a small country in an

international context of uncontained infection and catastrophic politics. Turning

an astonished eye on developed nations from the frail shelter of a tiny island,

the tale unveils alternative notions of civilization and enlightenment.