How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House
Books | Fiction / General
3.5
(220)
Cherie Jones
In the tradition of Zadie Smith and Marlon James, a debut novel, set in Barbados, about four people confronting violence and love in a beachfront "paradise" In Baxter's Beach, Barbados, Lala's grandmother Wilma tells the story of the one-armed sister, a cautionary tale about what happens to girls who disobey their mothers and go into the Baxter's Tunnels. When she's grown-up, Lala lives on the beach with her husband, Adan, a petty criminal with endless charisma whose thwarted burglary of one of the beach mansions sets off a chain of events with terrible consequences. A gunshot no one was meant to witness. A new mother whose baby is found lifeless on the beach. A woman torn between two worlds and incapacitated by grief. And two men, driven into the Tunnels by desperation and greed, who attempt a crime that may cost them their freedom--and their lives. How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House is an intimate and visceral portrayal of interconnected lives across race and class in a rapidly changing resort town, told by an astonishing new author of literary fiction.
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More Details:
Author
Cherie Jones
Pages
288
Publisher
HarperCollins Canada, Limited
Published Date
2021-01-26
ISBN
1443460419 9781443460415
Community ReviewsSee all
"This is a multi-pov novel set in Barbados in (aside from a few flashbacks) 1984 showcasing the explosive ways several people’s disparate lives come together in one moment in time. <br/><br/>This book left me a little conflicted. In a general technical sense, the writing is beautiful, particularly in the sections in second person, and while there was sort of a feeling of being somehow distanced from the characters I think that might be necessary to get through some of the story’s tough subject matter.<br/><br/>I was expecting a heavy read but maybe not quite this heavy. The hopeful note at the end was nice but I was left wondering what I should be taking away aside from how difficult everyone's lives were."
a
awesome_user_984860
"Well written. Trauma upon trauma. Heavy."
P G
Paul Garcia
"Book’s tw: depictions of abuse, murder; mentions of rape.
With that being said— the book was fantastic. It did not glorify or excuse any of the violent acts listed above. The story itself speaks of generational trauma and the life of people who do what needs to be done in order to survive. There is no happy ending but all loose ends are taken care of nicely."