Trinidad and Tobago / All works
Novel
The Year in San Fernando
Michael Anthony · 1965
Synopsis
Francis is twelve, and his mother is worn out by a life of work. To earn enough to pay for school, he goes to spend a year in San Fernando, with Mrs Chandles, an embittered old woman whose servant and companion he becomes in equal measure. Over the tropical seasons, which give the narrative its tone and cadence, the boy discovers the town and the world of adults, and learns lessons there that change his view of love, hope and death.
Context
The author's second book, coming after a story of a cycle race, it was published by André Deutsch and then reissued in 1970 by Heinemann with an introduction by Paul Edwards and Kenneth Ramchand. The archives of the Bocas Lit Fest, which list the most cited Caribbean books, count nine mentions for it and present it as the author's first published novel, a rank that other sources give to the cycling story of 1963. Critics note that the tropical seasons set its tone and rhythm. The writer received the Hummingbird Medal in 1979.
Who it is for
For those who like coming-of-age stories in which a child, far from his family, grows up in the service of a difficult mistress.
Prizes and reception
Reissued as early as 1970 and introduced by Kenneth Ramchand, it appears nine times in the lists compiled by the Bocas festival.
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