Author of the Month: Jamaica Kincaid
Selected by the Bookshop
Born Elaine Potter Richardson in Antigua in 1949 (she adopted her pen-name in 1973), Jamaica Kincaid’s work draws heavily on her own life, and is written with the powerful anger and rhetoric of a jeremiad. Much of her early writing appeared in the New Yorker under the tutelage of its veteran editor William Shawn, including the serialisation of her novel Lucy as well as many pieces for the ‘Talk of the Town’ column. ‘Like ‘The Ancient Mariner’ in Coleridge’s poem,’ wrote the Boston Herald, ‘Kincaid will not let you go until you’ve heard her tale.’
From the publisher:
An adored only child, Annie has until recently lived a peaceful and content life. She is inseparable from her beautiful mother, a powerful and influential presence, who sits at the very centre of the little girl’s existence. Loved and…
From the publisher:
In this acclaimed travel memoir Jamaica Kincaid chronicles a spectacular and exotic three-week trek through the Himalayan land of Nepal, where she and her companions are gathering seeds for planting at home. The natural world and, in…
From the publisher:
Lucy, a teenage girl from the West Indies, comes to North America to work as an au pair for Lewis and Mariah and their four children. At first glance Lewis and Mariah are a blessed couple – handsome, rich, and seemingly happy. Almost…
From the publisher:
At the Bottom of the River is Jamaica Kincaid’s first published work, a selection of inter-connected prose poems told from the perspective of a young Afro-Caribbean girl.Collecting pieces written for the New Yorker and the Paris…
From the publisher:
Xuela Claudette Richardson is recalling the last seventy years of her life, and so she must begin with her birth, and the accompanying death of her mother.Xuela’s vivid, visceral recollections of the lonely, unsettled life that…
From the publisher:
With a new preface by the author.‘If you go to Antigua as a tourist, this is what you will see…’So begins Jamaica Kincaid’s powerful portrait of the damaged paradise that was her childhood home.The island of Antigua…
From the publisher:
From "The Talk of the Town," Jamaica Kincaid's first impressions of snobbish, mobbish New YorkTalk Pieces is a collection of Jamaica Kincaid's original writing for the New Yorker's "Talk of the Town," composed during the time when…
From the publisher:
Jamaica Kincaid’s poetic and affecting story of an ordinary man attempting to make a home on the island of Antigua.‘Poetic and affecting’ - Robert Antoni, The Washington PostMr Potter, a taxi driver from Antigua,…
From the publisher:
One of the most important literary voices of the twentieth century on one of her greatest loves - gardening.‘[Kincaid] is able to do something that is almost never done in garden writing, and do it very well . . .’ - The…
From the publisher:
Jamaica Kincaid's poweful and moving account of the life and death of her younger brother.‘Controlled and fearless perfection’ - The Washington PostJamaica Kincaid’s brother Devon died of Aids on 19 January 1996 at…
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