Fire in the Canes - Hardcover

Glenville Lovell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1569470448 ISBN 13: 9781569470442

Publisher: Soho Press, 1995

Synopsis

A new arrival on a Caribbean island dominated by the cane fields, fifteen-year-old Midra falls under the spell of the island prince, whose African ancestry brings Midra a revelation from the ancient past. A first novel.

About this title

About the Author:

Glenville Lovell was born in Barbados. He is the author of several prizewinning plays as well as two novels, Song of Night and Fire in the Canes.

From Publishers Weekly:

Restless spirits of slaughtered slaves are as vibrant as any human character in this notable debut. In 1894, after the abolition of slavery, a tiny community on an island reminiscent of the author's native Barbados is still dominated by the local plantation and its cane fields. The return to this community, after a year's absence, of the exotic Peata and her teenage daughter, Midra, inspires a chain of events that alters the uneasy relationships between the landowners and their tenant workers. Before their disappearance, both women had been drawn to Prince Johnson, an itinerant seaman who spurned Peata's advances and seduced Midra, impregnating her; Johnson's body was found just before the two women left. Back in town, the women are initially mistrusted by the locals, yet Brandon Fields, an apprentice blacksmith, is drawn to Midra and her son, Hartseed, eventually marrying her. Hartseed is seven when he meets another of Johnson's children, a half-sister with whom he explores a remote cave in which the pair discover a mysterious mask. The mask releases its secrets selectively: wearing it, the children envision scenes from their family's past and decipher the secrets of their heritage. The mask also leads to the resolution of the rampant and bizarre destruction of the cane fields that has ravaged the plantation. Absorbing tales of other tenants fold not entirely smoothly into the otherwise richly descriptive narrative. Though the novel suffers slightly from harsh, choppy dialogue, it promises a bright literary future for the author.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Soho Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 1569470448
• ISBN 13: 9781569470442
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272