Brendan de Caires

Last fall, before common sense or modesty could prevail, I agreed to act as a regional judge for the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize. This committed me to a conscientious sifting through of nearly one hundred novels and short story collections. For the next five months, my backpack morphed into a mobile library and I embarked on my commute with high…

Five generations ago, two families from the Madeiran archipelago launched themselves on a transatlantic gamble. Lured by half truths and shady contracts, they embarked for the terra incognita of a small, anomalously anglophone part of South America named British Guiana. Inconvenienced by emancipation, “King Sugar” had turned to the deceptions of indentureship, which was little more than a higher form of…