Jennifer Rahim – författare

It is 1963, one year after Independence, and Trinidadians are beginning to wonder what they can expect. Anna takes a temporary post at a remote post office in a small coastal town, hoping to escape a failed relationship, and the drama, pressures and politics of her city life. But neither time or space is granted, as the life of Macaima passes through the post office, and Anna reluctantly begins to take on the villagers'' stories – which prove to be just as complicated and enmeshed in the social, cultural and political issues that divide the nation as her own. Long before the year is up, Anna has been immersed in an intense seasoning in Macaima that will change her for ever. Macaima is a magical place of intense and unforgettable characters, which Jennifer Rahim draws with exceptional psychological subtlety. And Anna herself – flawed, a little prickly and sometimes too ready to jump to conclusions – is a complex narrator whom we ultimately trust and care for. As an historical novel it asks probing questions about the nature of the means and ends of the project of Independence and its failures with respect to race, class, gender and sexuality.Goodbye Bay is simply one of the very best Caribbean novels to have been written, and not just in recent years. Written in a seamless mix of sharply observed realism with moments of rich humour, and of numinous poetic intensity, it tells a gripping story with room for surprise, humour, tragedy and redemption.

"Beyond Borders" is a multidisciplinary collection of essays with a focus on contemporary issues in Caribbean cultural studies. Culture and cultural identification are without a doubt highly charged political Goliaths with local and global ramifications. This is one of the reasons for the virtual boom the discipline has enjoyed, and the Caribbean is no exception. As a result, there is a growing demand for information in the field for both research and teaching purposes. The essays in this collection provide such a resource. They explore cross-cultural themes and issues across a range of disciplines that include literature, language, education, history and popular culture. They will interest a broad cross-section of regional and international readers, including a wide range of scholars, professional teachers, students and members of the general public wishing to understand the complex dynamics of Caribbean culture. The issues of cultural survival and negotiation with which most of these essays deal, serve to foreground a history of domination, resistance and marvelous transformations within and beyond the borders of this archipelago.It is no longer possible to pass culture off as simply a matter of commonalities, interests and values, as if politics and power were innocent of influencing what gets defined and consumed as culture. "Beyond Borders: Cross-culturalism and the Caribbean Canon" offers a forum for contemporary debates on Caribbean culture in its ongoing process of evolution.