The Islands

**Shortlisted for the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize
Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
A Hurston Wright Legacy Award Nominee
Longlisted for the 2023 New American Voices Award
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

Powerful stories that explore the legacy of colonialism, and issues of race, immigration, sexual discrimination, and class in the lives of Jamaican women across London, Panama, France, Jamaica, Florida and more**

The Islands follows the lives of Jamaican womenimmigrants or the descendants of immigrantswho have relocated all over the world to escape the ghosts of colonialism on what they call the Island. Set in the United States, Jamaica, and Europe, these international stories examine the lives of an uncertain and unsettled cast of characters. In one story, a woman and her husband impulsively leave San Francisco and move to Florida with wild dreams of American reinvention only to unearth the cracks in their marriage. In another, the only Jamaican motherwho is also a touring comedienneat a prep school feels pressure to volunteer in the school's International Day. Meanwhile, in a third story, a travel writer finally connects with the mother who once abandoned her.

Set in locations and times ranging from 1950s London to 1960s Panama to modern-day New Jersey, Dionne Irving reveals the intricacies of immigration and assimilation in this debut, establishing a new and unforgettable voice in Caribbean-American literature. Restless, displaced, and disconnected, these characters try to ground themselvesto grow where they find themselves plantedin a world in which the tension between what's said and unsaid can bend the soul.

Dettagli