Carnival: Robert Antoni

Synopsis:

William Fletcher is an aspiring novelist who has come to New York to escape his affluent West Indian roots. A chance meeting in a Greenwich Village bar reunites him with two of his childhood companions; Laurence, who left the poverty of his village to become an Oxford scholar and poet, and the vivacious Rachel, William's second cousin and first love. Together the three make a liquor-soaked pledge to return to Trinidad for the annual carnival. As the festival becomes a fog of ganja, alcohol and endless calypso beat, Rachel casts her eyes on Eddoes, the year's young and scandalous carnival king who has escaped his sequestered life in the mysterious Hell Valley for a few days of excitement.

It is to this remote place that the group goes to cool down after the festival. In the rainforest they hope for a secret paradise from which to begin anew. But even here the demons of history, prejudice and hatred violently intrude, as the novel's startling conclusion forces all to face both the power - and the impotence - of human resilience and love.

Tags:

Categorised as:
Fiction
Sub-categories:
General Fiction
Places:
Caribbean
Carnival book cover

Selected edition:
Paperback
ISBN:
9780571227853
Published:
20.04.2006
No of pages:
304
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