Novel
Black Midas
Jan Carew · 1958
Synopsis
An orphan very early, raised by his grandparents, Aron Smart never finishes his studies. Like his father before him, he sets out to look for gold and diamonds in the interior of Guyana, and becomes in the placers the legendary prospector everyone calls Shark. Once fortune comes, he wants to use it to enter high society and to bring Belle into it with him.
Context
First novel by its author, the book appeared in London in 1958 from Secker & Warburg, the same year as his second, and in New York under the title A Touch of Midas. Peepal Tree Press reissued it in 2009 among its Caribbean classics, reading in it a warning about what could happen after independence. It remains the best-known book of the writer, who went on to publish novels, plays, children's books and essays on Caribbean history.
Who it is for
A novel in English, with a linear narrative, not translated into French; it is best read knowing what pork-knockers were, independent prospectors of the interior.
Prizes and reception
Reissued among the Caribbean classics, it was put forward in 2017 by the Guyanese press for a film adaptation.
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