Picador Collection The Autobiography of My Mother

Bol

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 follows the trauma of her arrival include that of her distant father, who sends her away to another household at the earliest opportunity; of her passion for the stevedore Roland, who fulfils her sexually but not intellectually; and of her husband, who provides her with status and a wealthy lifestyle but whom she is incapable of loving. Poetic and disturbing, The Autobiography of My Mother is one of Kincaid’s most powerful statements of Afro-Caribbean women’s struggle for identity and independence, against a hostile backdrop of sexism and colonialism. Part of the Picador Collection, a new series showcasing the best of modern literature.

Bol Partner

Jamaica Kincaid's new novel is narrated by a seventy-year old West Indian woman looking back on her life and evoking the relationships that have given it meaning. Her themes are sex, human relations, and the interplay of power and powerlessness - and how easy it is to fall from one into the other. Her story, which begins at the height of imperialism and ends in the twilight of colonialism, abounds in the vivid characters, strong situations and pyrotechnic writing that make Jamaica Kincaid one of our most compelling novelists.

Amazon

Pages: 208, Edition: 1, Paperback, Pan Macmillan