Voices of Barbados: Celebrating Bajan Authors and StoriesLike this list

26 items

• The Polished Hoe

  Clarke, Austin, 1934-2016

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  Set in Barbados, this award-winning novel is a dramatic confession of a woman reflecting on her life under colonial rule, love, and betrayal.

• How the One-armed Sister Sweeps Her House

  a Novel

  Jones, Cherie

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  Set in a Barbados tourist town, this acclaimed novel uncovers the dark truths behind paradise—violence, class divides, and the fight for survival.

• The Island of Forgetting

  Sealy, Jasmine

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  A haunting, multi-generational story set in Barbados that weaves myth and memory to explore love, loss, and the legacies families carry.

• Washington Black

  a Novel

  Edugyan, Esi

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  This award-winning novel begins on a Barbados sugar plantation, where young enslaved boy George Washington Black is chosen as an assistant to an eccentric inventor. What follows is an epic journey across continents that explores freedom, identity,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• River Sing Me Home

  a Novel

  Shearer, Eleanor

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  Set in the Caribbean after emancipation, this historical novel follows a formerly enslaved woman’s journey—touching Barbados as part of its broader freedom story.

• The Star Side of Bird Hill

  Jackson, Naomi A.

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  A coming-of-age novel about two sisters sent from Brooklyn to Barbados, exploring family, identity, and the pull of home across the diaspora.

• The Meeting Point

  Clarke, Austin, 1934-2016

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  Set in 1950s Toronto, this novel follows a group of Barbadian domestic workers navigating life in a foreign city. Through their struggles and triumphs, Clarke captures the migrant experience and the enduring connection to Barbados—the island they…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Redemption in Indigo

  a Novel

  Lord, Karen, 1968-

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  When Paama leaves her husband, she attracts the attention of the undying ones who present her with the Chaos Stick, which allows her to manipulate the subtle forces of the world.

• Soul Clap Hands and Sing

  Marshall, Paule

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  A collection of novellas, including Caribbean settings, where Marshall examines colonial legacy, race, and identity with a deeply Bajan lens.

• The Bigger Light

  Clarke, Austin

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  In The Bigger Light, Austin Clarke returns to the Caribbean, examining the moral, political, and emotional struggles of life in a postcolonial Barbados. The novel explores ambition, power, and integrity as characters seek their own “bigger light”—a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Girl, Woman, Other

  a Novel

  Evaristo, Bernardine, 1959-

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  This Booker Prize–winning novel follows the interconnected lives of twelve Black British women across generations. Told in Evaristo’s lyrical, unconventional style, it explores themes of identity, womanhood, and belonging. While set largely in the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Sugar in the Blood

  A Family's Story of Slavery and Empire

  Stuart, Andrea

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  A historian’s personal excavation into her family’s roots in Barbados, uncovering the deep entanglement of sugar, slavery, and empire.

• Capone

  J., Jahquel

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  A gripping urban love story that, while contemporary and gritty, speaks to the Caribbean diaspora experience and the global reach of storytelling rooted in resilience.

• Island Queen

  a Novel

  Riley, Vanessa

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  Inspired by a true story, this novel follows Dorothy “Doll” Kirwan Thomas—born enslaved in Montserrat, rising to wealth and power across the Caribbean, including Barbados, during the 18th century.

• More

  Clarke, Austin

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  A powerful novel about a middle-aged Barbadian immigrant in Toronto, confronting identity, loneliness, and the longing for connection far from home.

• The Great Divide

  a Novel

  Henríquez, Cristina, 1977-

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  While set in Panama during the canal’s construction, this novel includes Caribbean characters, including Bajans, whose labor and lives shaped the region’s history.

• The First Black Slave Society

  Britain's "Barbarity Time" in Barbados, 1636-1876

  Hilary McD. Beckles

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  A definitive historical account of how Barbados became the model for British slavery, shaping systems of race and power across the Americas.

• The Sugar Barons

  Family, Corruption, Empire, and War in the West Indies

  Parker, Matthew

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  A sweeping history of the sugar industry and colonial power in the West Indies, with Barbados as one of the central stages of empire.

• The Origin of Waves

  Clarke, Austin

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  A lyrical, introspective novel about friendship, exile, and the pull of the sea—reflecting Clarke’s deep Bajan sensibility and themes of displacement.

• Kingstown Burning

  A Novel

  Gray, Rachelle J.

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  A contemporary Caribbean novel that, while set across the region, draws in Bajan themes of resilience and cultural pride.