Cherie Jones
Cherie Jones won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 1999. She won both the Archie Markham Award and the A.M. Heath Prize at Sheffield Hallam in the UK. She still works as a lawyer, in addition to her writing. 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 Barbados resort town, told by an astonishing new author of literary fiction.
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Survival is triumph.
I write mostly on the bed in my bedroom in the wee hours of the morning. I’m usually near 2 windows–one looks out unto the pasture and the other my favourite corner of the garden. There’s a huge Moringa tree, a mango tree and a bay leaf tree. I’ve always felt especially drawn to that part of the garden, although I’m not sure why. Maybe because it’s wilder and less manicured than other parts. I’ve provided a pic of the view of that corner from the window beside my bed.
As I write this, it’s the last few days of my holiday and I’m binge-watching ‘Bridgerton’ on Netflix. I’m happily hooked! I love the exquisite costumes and storyline, it’s amazing TV. Right before that I watched the entire series of ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ which was also awesome. I love TV shows set in the past which feature strong, intelligent women.
I’m a Leo. Leo’s are said to be passionate, expressive and sometimes stubborn! I’d say that’s probably quite accurate!
I killed one of Tone’s lovers in How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House. I was sad about it, too. Her character was loud, brash and unrepentant, I loved her, but the scene where she featured simply wasn’t central to the story and in the end I had to kill her. It happens sometimes, but she’s a character I think will appear somewhere else in future. She’s still in my head.
In the tradition of Zadie Smith and Marlon James, a brilliant Caribbean writer delivers a powerful story about four people each desperate to escape their legacy of violence in a so-called "paradise."
In Baxter’s Beach, Barbados, Lala’s grandmother Wilma tells the story of the one-armed sister. It’s a cautionary tale, about what happens to girls who disobey their mothers and go into the Baxter’s Tunnels. When she’s grown, 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 will risk 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.
One of 2021's Most Anticipated New Fiction
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