Bookshelf 2023: "Imaginative and ambitious"

Collins vividly imagines [...] the life that Malcolm’s mother (and her parents and grandparents) must have lived in colonial Grenada, from slavery days into the early twentieth century. [...] Imaginative and ambitious, the first-person narration, with a great deal of French-based Creole dialogue, didn’t always persuade us that these characters would think and talk the way they’re depicted. But on the whole, this is a rewarding read and a memorable, intimate vision of colonialism.