A Caribbean country on the verge of collapse. A small town called Boundary. A rambling house inhabited by three generations of the Abrahams family. And a little girl who is trying to make sense of it all.

Bethany Bettany is five years old when her father dies and her mother leaves her to fend for herself in the Abrahams household. The place simmers with resentment: her uncles and aunts think her mother killed her father; her grandmother refuses to leave her room. Bethany is the scapegoat for it all.

In Bethany, D'Aguiar has created both a loveable character and a symbol for the search of a nation to make itself whole. If Boundary is Guyana, then Bethany Bettany - a girl torn between two names - is the spirit of its people poised for flight.

About the Author
Fred D'Aguiar is a poet and novelist. Born in 1960, he was raised in Guyana and London. He is currently Professor of English and Gloria D. Smith Professor of Africana Studies at Virginia Tech State University. His first novel, The Longest Memory, won the 1994 Whitbread First Novel Award.

Reviews
'Immediately pleasurable... touching and suspenseful * Observer *
This book is beautifully written, the characters intriguing * Scotland on Sunday *
Fred D'Aguiar's powerful and original work employs all kinds of poetic rhythms and shapes to dramatise the dreams, struggles and desires of his protagonists. He has helped to create a new kind of novel... How beautifully D'Aguiar writes about eroticism and sensuality. The novel is a paean to love lost and found again * Independent *
Evocative * Independent on Sunday *
D'Aguiar's forte is in getting under the skin of his character... an ambitious novel * The Times *
A magical tale full of potent emotion * Metro *
His sentences glow with poetry, creating pictures that stay with the reader * Good Book Guide *



Book Information
ISBN 9781784705404
Author Fred D'aguiar
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Vintage
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 224g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 20mm