I’ve always been a voracious reader but since 2017 I’ve been making a conscientious effort to make sure that more Caribbean releases were included in my yearly reading lists.

At the risk of sounding corny and cliche, I’ve got to admit that there’s something undeniably enchanting about delving into stories where characters are not just strangers on a page but echoes of people I’ve met, places are not distant lands but familiar streets and corners, and issues are not abstract concepts but real-life challenges I myself may have faced. This, to me, is the magic of reading about characters, places, and issues that I can identify with.

In this article, we’ll be your guide to embarking on a literary voyage through some of the best (in my opinion) 2023 Read Caribbean releases.

Strap in and get ready to dive into a treasure trove of Caribbean voices.

RIVER SING ME HOME

The master of the Providence plantation in Barbados gathers his slaves and announces the king has decreed an end to slavery. As of the following day, the Emancipation Act of 1834 will come into effect. The cries of joy fall silent when he announces that they are no longer his slaves; they are now his apprentices. No one can leave. They must work for him for another six years. Freedom is just another name for the life they have always lived. So Rachel runs.
 Away from Providence, she begins a desperate search to find her children—the five who survived birth and were sold. Are any of them still alive? Rachel has to know. The grueling, dangerous journey takes her from Barbados then, by river, deep into the forest of British Guiana and finally across the sea to Trinidad. She is driven on by the certainty that a mother cannot be truly free without knowing what has become of her children, even if the answer is more than she can bear. These are the stories of Mary Grace, Micah, Thomas Augustus, Cherry Jane and Mercy. But above all this is the story of Rachel and the extraordinary lengths to which a mother will go to find her children…and her freedom.

HUNGRY GHOSTS

Trinidad in the 1940s, nearing the end of American occupation and British colonialism. On a hill overlooking Bell Village sits the Changoor farm, where Dalton and Marlee Changoor live in luxury unrecognizable to those who reside in the farm’s shadow. Down below is the Barrack, a ramshackle building of wood and tin, divided into rooms occupied by whole families. Among these families are the Saroops—Hans, Shweta, and their son, Krishna, all three born of the barracks. Theirs are hard lives of backbreaking work, grinding poverty, devotion to faith, and a battle against nature and a social structure designed to keep them where they are. But when Dalton goes missing and Marlee’s safety is compromised, farmhand Hans is lured by the promise of a handsome stipend to move to the farm as a watchman. As the mystery of Dalton’s disappearance unfolds, the lives of the wealthy couple and those who live in the barracks below become insidiously entwined, their community changed forever and in shocking ways.A searing and singular novel of religion, class, family, and historical violence, and rooted in Trinidad’s wild pastoral landscape and inspired by oral storytelling traditions, Hungry Ghosts is deeply resonant of its time and place while evoking the roots and ripple effects of generational trauma and linked histories; the lingering resentments, sacrifices, and longings that alter destinies; and the consequences of powerlessness.

WINDWARD FAMILY

Twenty years after living there as a child, Alexis Keir returns to the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent. He is keen to uncover lost memories and rediscover old connections. But he also carries with him the childhood scars of being separated from his parents and put into uncaring hands.

Inspired by the embrace of his relatives in the Caribbean, Alexis begins to unravel the stories of others who left Saint Vincent, searching through diary pages and newspaper articles, shipping and hospital records and faded photographs. He uncovers tales of exploitation, endeavour and bravery of those who had to find a home far away from where they were born.A child born with vitiligo, torn from his mother’s arms to be exhibited as a showground attraction in England; a woman who, in the century before the Windrush generation, became one of the earliest Black nurses to be recorded as working in a London hospital; a young boy who became a footman in a Yorkshire stately home. And Alexis’s mother, a student nurse who arrives in 1960s London, ready to start a new life in a cold, grey country – and the man from her island whom she falls in love with.

THE HUMAN ORIGINS OF BEATRICE PORTER AND OTHER ESSENTIAL GHOSTS

Sisters Zora and Sasha Porter are drifting apart. Bearing witness to their father’s violence and their mother’s worsening illness, an unsettled Zora escapes into her journal, dreaming of being a writer, while Sasha discovers sex and chest binding, spending more time with her new girlfriend than at home.
But the sisters, like their parents, must come together to answer to something more ancient and powerful than they know—and reckon with a family secret buried in the past. A tale told from the perspective of a mischievous narrator, featuring the Rolling Calf who haunts butchers, Mama Dglo who lives in the ocean, a vain tiger, and an outsmarted snake, The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts is set in a world as alive and unpredictable as Helen Oyeyemi’s.

THE GOD OF GOOD LOOKS

Disgraced model-writer Bianca Bridge can’t stand hotshot makeup maven Obadiah Cortland. And he lets her know the feeling is mutual. But when working together is their last resort, they must navigate scandal, revenge, and unexpected affection to unlock the beauty that’s found in redemption.

Getting a second chance is a beautiful thing…Bianca Bridge is like an eyeshadow palette. She’s a vibrant kaleidoscope of big personality and even bigger dreams, with a tendency towards messiness and fallout. Case in point: losing her job and ruining her reputation by having an affair with a married government official.

Her fiercely confident and tyrannical new boss Obadiah Cortland—a legend in Trinidad’s beauty scene—is like a statement red lipstick. Dubbed the God of Good Looks, Obadiah has perfected his hotshot façade through years of slipping through the island’s rigid class barriers. He knows as well as Bianca that the tiniest smudge can ruin your image.

When Bianca’s ex threatens both their futures, they must find a way to work together to save everything they care about. But, underneath their clashing personalities, as they strive to protect everyone in their shared orbit and begin to let down their carefully constructed masks, is it possible that one of the things they care about is…each other? 

WHEN THE VIBE IS RIGHT

There are two things Tess Crawford knows for sure: 

She’s destined to be a great Trinidadian Carnival costume designer like her renowned uncle, Russel Messina, and will one day inherit leadership of the family’s masquerade band, Grandeur. 

Her classmate, the popular social media influencer, Brandon Richards, is the bane of her existence. Everything about him irks her, from his annoying nickname for Tess (“Boop”) to his association with David, her awful ex. 

But when the future of Grandeur nears the brink of collapse in the face of band rivalry, Tess finds to her chagrin that she must team up with Brandon in a desperate attempt to revive the company. 

As Tess and Brandon spend more time together, Tess begins to wonder if everything she thought she knew might not be so certain after all…. 

Set in lush, gorgeous Trinidad, this is a novel about finding love in the most unexpected places.