Shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards

In this fascinating travelogue, the product of almost a decade of travel and intense study, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro strips away the fantasy and myth to expose the real islands, and the real people, that make up the Caribbean.

About the Author
Joshua Jelly-Schapiro is a geographer and writer whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, New Yorker, Harper's, the Believer, Artforum, and the Nation, among many other publications. Educated at Yale and Berkeley, he is the co-editor, with Rebecca Solnit, of Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas, and a visiting scholar at New York University's Institute for Public Knowledge. This is his first book.

Reviews
A heartfelt Caribbean journey . . . through the places, literature and music of the region to beautifully illuminate the histories of people and continents . . . Terrific * * Observer * *
Delves into the brutal history and unique allure of the Caribbean . . . Island People, written by a careful and compassionate author, is a worthy travel and history book, a fresh study * * Guardian * *
A travelogue of love and scholarship . . . does the region splendid justice * * New York Times * *
A pleasingly broad study of the Caribbean and its vital, indecipherable blend of peoples * * Financial Times * *
Allows the Caribbean to stand on its own and shine . . . A celebration of culture, music and literature . . . shows the magic of the people of the Caribbean . . . infused with passion, love and vibrancy -- Sharmaine Lovegrove * * Monocle Arts Review * *
A creative hybrid of travel writing and in-depth reportage . . . Its balance of skepticism and enthusiasm is driven by both wide knowledge and a bracing sympathy for the oppressed . . . He has a journalist's flair for interviews and is as deft with chance encounters as with pop idols. Above all he finds dignity as well as excitement in this beautiful archipelago -- Colin Thubron * * New York Review of Books * *
This book illuminates, like no other I've read, the startling history and the complex present of the nations of the Caribbean. Written with passion and joyful music in the prose, Island People will become an indispensable companion for anybody travelling to the Caribbean - or dreaming of doing so -- SUKETU MEHTA
Many have tried this before - to get hold of, in its entirety, the volatile, beautiful, relentlessly shifting Caribbean. Nobody has succeeded as dazzlingly as Joshua Jelly-Schapiro -- MARLON JAMES
One of those rare writers who bridges worlds - between deep scholarship and lively and accessible writing, between islands and mainlands, between big ideas and precise details, between history and possibility -- REBECCA SOLNIT
Joshua Jelly-Schapiro possesses both a humanist's irrepressible empathy and a journalist's necessary skepticism. He reports carefully, researches exhaustively, cares deeply, and writes beautifully -- DAVE EGGERS
Joshua Jelly-Schapiro's grand book on the Caribbean is so striking in form and vision that it amounts to something new - a constant surprise . . . An important book filled with many truths -- HILTON ALS
A marvel of a book . . . Joshua Jelly-Schapiro is a superb young writer who brings to this sea of dreams a scholar's authority, a novelist's way with character, and a top reporter's talent for stumbling into exactly that tale, however improbable and fantastic, that most needs telling -- MARK DANNER
Sensitive to the power of place to anchor or disturb identity, Josh Jelly-Schapiro maps the Caribbean through its myth and its music, its history and its intellectual tradition. Erudite, reflective and savvy, Island People is as much a pleasure to read as it is an education -- GAIUTRA BAHADUR


Awards
Short-listed for The Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards - Marco Polo Outstanding General Travel Themed Book of the Year 2018 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9781782115625
Author Joshua Jelly-Schapiro
Format Paperback
Page Count 512
Imprint Canongate Books
Publisher Canongate Books
Weight(grams) 351g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 22mm