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.
Sometimes it's easy to say what a story is about. Murder. Romance. Fantasy. The words roll right off of the tongue. Other times, a story is so well-written, that it's much more difficult. The pieces all blend together so well that separating them into neat categories just doesn't seem to work. That is the case with 'Land of Love and Drowning'. The sum of it's parts is so much better than any simple label.
The Virgin Islands, around the time that they became part of America. Life was rich, though not necessarily with cash. Two girls, sisters, lived with their parents in a grand old home. They were tied to the sea - daddy a captain, mama from an island, both learning to swim as babies. One beautiful, one not. One a favorite of their father, the other, well...she stubborn. And then it begins to fall apart. Lives are changed with the smallest, and the grandest, of decisions - while the island is also changing. And everyone so intertwined with each other, and with the islands, that separation seems almost impossible.
The characters were truly what made this story for me. They are each complete in and of themselves, and in this I count the islands. Even the sea is written about in such a way that her character is amply demonstrated. There is a bit of a mystery in the book, and love, and death...quite simply, it's a novel about life. How it's lived, and how it changes us - sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse.
I'm certain I'm not doing this story the justice it deserves. Quite simply - read the book. Read it, savor it, don't rush through it. And when you're done, if you're not going to read it again right away, share it with a friend. This is the kind of story that wants to be shared - as all stories do.
