A critically acclaimed debut from an award-winning writer—an epic family saga set against the magic and the rhythms of the Virgin Islands.
In the early 1900s, the Virgin Islands are transferred from Danish to American rule, and an important ship sinks into the Caribbean Sea. Orphaned by the shipwreck are two sisters and their half brother, now faced with an uncertain identity and future. Each of them is unusually beautiful, and each is in possession of a particular magic that will either sink or save them.
Chronicling three generations of an island family from 1916 to the 1970s, Land of Love and Drowning is a novel of love and magic, set against the emergence of Saint Thomas into the modern world. Uniquely imagined, with echoes of Toni Morrison, Gabriel García Márquez, and the author’s own Caribbean family history, the story is told in a language and rhythm that evoke an entire world and way of life and love. Following the Bradshaw family through sixty years of fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, love affairs, curses, magical gifts, loyalties, births, deaths, and triumphs, Land of Love and Drowning is a gorgeous, vibrant debut by an exciting, prizewinning young writer.
"Land of Love and Drowning" is the book "'Til the Well Runs Dry" should have been.
From my review for AP:
"... Yanique is herself from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and she draws on her family heritage to craft a saga that spans generations. She makes a handful of overlooked Caribbean islands seem like a vast and vital landscape.
... In less confident hands, "Land of Love and Drowning" would have faltered and failed to reconcile its blend of myth and modernity. Yanique has written the best kind of summer read — lurid, yet layered and literary."
Read the whole review here: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/yanique-makes-us-virgin-islands-seem-vast-debut
