In the Castle of My Skin

11.99

In a sleepy fishing village in 1930s Barbados, nine-year-old G. leads a life of quiet mischief. While the village lies tranquil in the shadow of its English landlord, Mr Creighton, and his towering house on the hill, G. makes his own fun, crab catching, teasing preachers, and playing among the pumpkin vines. Yet from this world of boyish pursuits, the precocious G. finds himself slowly awakening to strange goings-on in adult society. All around him, sudden bursts of violence – a devastating flood on the morning of his birthday; the headmaster unduly flogging his schoolmates on Empire day – hint at a brutality and destruction lurking beneath the apparently peaceful order of things.

SKU: 9780241296066 Category: Tag:

Description

‘They won’t know you, the you that’s hidden somewhere in the castle of your skin’

Nine-year-old G. leads a life of quiet mischief crab catching, teasing preachers and playing among the pumpkin vines. His sleepy fishing village in 1930s Barbados is overseen by the English landlord who lives on the hill, just as their ‘Little England’ is watched over by the Mother Country. Yet gradually, G. finds himself awakening to the violence and injustice that lurk beneath the apparent order of things. As the world he knows begins to crumble, revealing the bruising secret at its heart, he is spurred ever closer to a life-changing decision. Lyrical and unsettling, George Lamming’s autobiographical coming-of-age novel is a story of tragic innocence amid the collapse of colonial rule.

‘Rich and riotous’ The Times

‘Its poetic imaginative writing has never been surpassed’ Tribune

Additional information

Weight0.269 kg
Dimensions19.8 × 12.9 × 2.1 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

xx, 339

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

813.54 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K