It is 1963, one year after Independence, and Trinidadians are beginning to wonder what they can expect. Anna takes a temporary post at a remote post office in a small coastal town, hoping to escape a failed relationship, and the drama, pressures and politics of her city life. But neither time or space is granted, as the life of Macaima passes through the post office, and Anna reluctantly begins to take on the villagers' stories - which prove to be just as complicated and enmeshed in the social, cultural and political issues that divide the nation as her own. Long before the year is up, Anna has been immersed in an intense seasoning in Macaima that will change her for ever. Macaima is a magical place of intense and unforgettable characters, which Jennifer Rahim draws with exceptional psychological subtlety. And Anna herself - flawed, a little prickly and sometimes too ready to jump to conclusions - is a complex narrator whom we ultimately trust and care for. As an historical novel it asks probing questions about the nature of the means and ends of the project of Independence and its failures with respect to race, class, gender and sexuality. Goodbye Bay is simply one of the very best Caribbean novels to have been written, and not just in recent years. Written in a seamless mix of sharply observed realism with moments of rich humour, and of numinous poetic intensity, it tells a gripping story with room for surprise, humour, tragedy and redemption.

About the Author
Jennifer Rahim (1963-2023) is an award-winning Trinidadian writer of poetry, fiction and literary criticism. She published three earlier collections of poetry: Approaching Sabbaths, winner of the Casa de las Americas Prize, Redemption Rain, and Ground Level. Her published fiction includes Songster and Other Stories and Curfew Chronicles, winner of the 2018 overall OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.


Book Information
ISBN 9781845235390
Author Jennifer Rahim
Format Paperback
Page Count 250
Imprint Peepal Tree Press Ltd
Publisher Peepal Tree Press Ltd