Black Rock

Amanda Smyth is Irish/Trinidadian. She completed an MA in Creative Writing at UEA in 2000. Her short stories have been published in New Writing, London Magazine, and broadcast on Radio 4 as part of a series called Love and Loss. Amanda was awarded an Arts Council Grant for her first novel, Black Rock.

Her writing is as lushly beautiful as the landscape she describes - it's the kind of novel that leaves your head filled with gorgeous pictures. -- Kate Saunders The Times Set in the intense heat and vibrant lushness of the Caribbean, this compelling novel tells the story of Celia, an orphan with a prophecy hanging over her...it sings with life, texture and verve -- Victoria Moore Daily Mail This beautifully assured debut is rich with the sumptuous vistas, poetry and spirit of the Caribbean...Clashes of culture, temperament, loyalty and love jostle together, with the dramatic events and quandaries woven together with lyricism, tenderness and sensuality. Easy Living There are hints of Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea throughout Smyth's hypnotic, eerie novel... Smyth writes entrancingly on tropical heat and light, indolence, vengeance and desire. -- Catherine Taylor The Guardian Certain novels are alive with colour. Written in lush, lyrical language evocative of its tropical setting, ... Smyth's debut is an absorbing and morally complex read with a bittersweet twist at the end -- Melissa McClements Financial Times [A] beautifully written story of her journey into adulthood. Tropical landscape, realistic dialogue and a strong plotline make this debut a winner. -- Jennifer Ryan Image In painterly images, Smyth evocatively shows more than she tells... There are echoes of the archetypal "mad woman", if not in an attic then in a marital room in the Caribbean, with scenes reminiscent of Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea... this is a vivid and compelling story, exploring the extent of our control over our destinies. -- Anita Sethi The Independent A damaged but irresistible heroine... Smyth's story is a powerful, authentic one and Celia is an appealing, earthy, yet spiritual heroine who grows, wounded and embattled, through the course of the book -- Lesley McDowell Independent on Sunday A captivating read -- Aisling Foster The Irish Times Amanda Smyth writes like a descendant of Jean Rhys. Black Rock is a powerful cocktail of heat and beautiful coolness, written in a heady, mesmerising yet translucent prose which marks Smyth out as a born novelist. Ali Smith A beautiful, lyrical novel -- Patrick Freyne Sunday Tribune A very remarkable book DoveGreyReader A stunning debut novel The Gloss A lovely piece of storytelling Waterstone's Books Quarterly In the mid-twentieth-century Trinidad and Tobago of Amanda Smyth's antipatriarchal debut novel, it's infuriatingly easy to keep a good woman down... Like Alice Walker, Smyth vividly and empathetically re-creates the gender and racial tensions in a culture's past, making them newly relevant Elle US From its first page, Amanda Smyth's compelling debut novel, Lime Tree Can't Bear Orange, wraps readers in the sensual riches and lilting rhythms of Caribbean island life... On Trinidad the truth of these prophecies slowly unfolds, and in this unfurling, Smyth demonstrates that she is equally adept at evoking the character and pace of island life, its mix of sun-beaten indolence and simmering violence, catch-as-catch-can employment and postcard-prettified dreams, and the uneasy racial roles that still move, even in the middle of the 20th century, to the ghostly tune of colonial times. As the tale moves with inexorable power towards its startling conclusion, Lime Tree Can't Bear Orange cultivates the poignancy of Caribbean island life to almost unbearably luxuriant bloom. -- Don George National Geographic Traveler [US] On the very first page the quality of the writing grabbed me, and I spent the whole day reading it with the greatest pleasure. A novel really does have to be the real thing to do that to me, and this is -- Diana Athill Brilliant... It was so atmospheric, I had to read it in one sitting. -- Lorraine Kelly N/A A gripping story that transports you to rich, tropical climes... An impressive debut. -- Holly Kyte Sunday Telegraph Smyth's heady coming-of-age novel exposes a young girl's vulnerability in a society of predatory men. -- Emma Hagestadt Independent This is a coming-of-age story written in a lyrical, atmospheric prose with an arresting simplicity that will grip you from page one. -- Sorcha Hamilton Irish Times