'A landmark, not in the West Indian, but in the contemporary novel.' C. L. R. James

'First-class talent.' The Voice

Trinidad, 1970s. Calvary Hill - poverty stricken and rubbish-strewn - is home to a community of people who come together during the joyful yearly town Carnival, becoming larger-than-life versions of themselves. But when it ends, and the strains of day-to-day life grow large, what happens to the peoples' hopes, and the feeling that 'all o' we is one'?

With an unforgettable cast of characters, The Dragon Can't Dance is a stunning, classic novel of the desire for identity and belonging, alongside the legacies of a colonial past.

The Dragon Can't Dance is an immersive canvas of shanty-town life, a Caribbean classic in which Lovelace's intimate knowledge of rural Trinidad is brilliantly brought to life.

About the Author
Earl Lovelace is a novelist, playwright, and essayist who lives and works in Trinidad and Tobago. Among many honours and positions, he was most recently the Distinguished Novelist in the Department of English at the Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington (1999-2005), and his schooling includes the Eastern Caribbean Institute of Agriculture and Forestry, Howard University, and Johns Hopkins University from which he holds the Master of Arts degree. His novels include Salt, which won the 1997 Commonwealth Writers Prize, The Dragon Can't Dance (1998), The Wine of Astonishment (1982), The Schoolmaster (1968), and While Gods Are Falling (1965), winner of The British Petroleum Independence Literary Award. His short stories appear in the collection, A Brief Conversion and Other Stories (1988); his selected essays appear in Growing in the Dark (2003); and a film of his story 'Joebell and America' with a screenplay co-authored with his daughter Asha, was produced in September 2004.


Book Information
ISBN 9780571193172
Author Earl Lovelace
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Faber & Faber
Publisher Faber & Faber
Weight(grams) 202g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 14mm