Böcker av Merle Collins

Through a mix of fictive narrative, letters and poetry, Ocean Stirrings tells the story of the mother of Malcolm X. From the shores of Grenada to the bustling streets of New York City, this is a powerful and poignant tribute to a remarkable woman and an important chapter in the history of the civil rights movement.

Set on the imaginary Caribbean island of Paz, reminiscent of Grenada, this book creates and occupies a space between epic poetry and the novel in the way its sequence of interludes bring into focus the lives of family and community through time. Moving from the days of slavery through to the 1980s, it conveys a powerful sense of place, of both attachment and confinement, of the meaning of land in relation to the island's smallness, and the ever-present danger of communal violence. Through the novel comes the voice of three generations of the women the islanders know as Carib, warner women, whose prophecies of disaster are dismissed as madness, but who have an unerring sense of what is to come. Signalled in her title, Merle Collins has much to say about the nature of memory and the fatal nature of amnesia when it comes to the lessons of the past.

Chronicling the events that took place in Grenada from 1951--when workers revolted against the white owners of the sugar and cocoa estates--to the U.S. invasion in 1983, this revised and expanded edition follows headstrong Angel and her mother Doodsie as they experience the deposition of the old, corrupted leadership with conflicted emotions. As their community struggles for independence, the political conflicts in Grenada tear long-term relationships apart, provoke fratricidal killings, and allow an outrageous breach of sovereignty. Seamlessly moving between these serious events and the warmth and tensions of family life, this celebrated novel offers an informed account of the revolution and a richly developed vernacular.

From the 1930s through the dawning of a new century, these tender and moving stories underscore living life with style and hidden steel despite one's circumstances and warn against disregarding the past struggles of others. Doux Thibaut negotiates a hard life on the Caribbean island of Paz, confronting the shame of poverty and illegitimacy, the haz