The Houses of Alphonso by Anthony Kellman

Idora Morrison is a Barbadian living in Toronto. For that reason it will not be included in this list. More (2008) by Austin Clarke The cover of More.Īustin Clarke’s most famous work is, perhaps undoubtedly, The Polished Hoe. In Love in Death in Brooklyn it’s the murder of an African-American politician, whereas in The Darkest Street, it’s that of the father of a wealthy friend. Like their predecessor, each novel sees Overstreet investigating a murder. Two sequels followed Too Beautiful To Die: Love and Death in Brooklyn in 2004 and The Darkest Street in 2016. Now on the the run from the FBI and his former employer, Overstreet must solve the murder and clear his name.

During an investigation into the disappearance of an actress’ father, he finds the body of a murdered FBI agent and is framed. He resigned from – and is suing – the NYPD after being shot and nearly killed by a white office. The novel follows Black ex-cop Blades Overstreet. While Lovell’s first two novels were set in the Caribbean – Song of Night took place in Barbados – Too Beautiful to Die is set in Brooklyn, New York. Both are categorised as literary fiction. He’d previously written the novels Fire in the Canes and Song of Night, which were published in 19, respectively. Too Beautiful to Die is Lovell’s first novel in the mystery and crime genres. Too Beautiful to Die (2003) by Glenville Lovell The cover of Too Beautiful to Die.

To keep the list short and sweet, I’m going with one novel from each author, which means that in most cases it will be the first novel they released in or after the year 2000. Further, there won’t be any collections of short stories, poems, or anything of the sort. I’m focusing specifically on fiction novels, so you won’t find non-fiction books like biographies, memories, true crime, and the like. And it’s that particular period that I’m looking at in this list.

In fact, there are more that were published since the turn of the millennium than I think most Bajans would imagine. But that’s not true.īarbados doesn’t have a prolific output of novels, but several Barbadian novels have been published since around the 1950s until the present day. As a result, your conception of Barbadian Literature as a whole, not just novels, is that it is largely confined to the 50s, 60s and 70s, because those were the only decades the course pulled from.

Perhaps like me, the first time you encountered a Barbadian novel and novelist was when you studied English Literature at the Barbados Community College. How many Barbadian novels and/or novelists can you name off the top of your head? I’d venture to guess that for a lot of Bajans – maybe even most – that number is one likely either In the Castle of My Skin by George Lamming or The Polished Hoe by Austin Clarke.

The Houses of Alphonso by Anthony Kellman