An Afro-Caribbean immigrant to Canada, author Robert de la Chevotière uses this novel to explore the emotional and cultural experience of Caribbean life and diaspora, especially how violence, ancestry, spirituality, and displacement shape identity.
As someone whose own life story has been shaped by migration, he has crafted a haunting family story about a boy growing up amid the intertwined forces of Caribbean history, colonialism, Catholicism, Obeah, family conflict, and migration.
The story follows the boy, Fidel, from Guadeloupe to Dominica and onward toward Canada, confronting his grief and identity while reconciling with the living and the dead.