Jamaican author drops new novel
AMillion Aunties, the forthcoming novel by award-winning author Alecia Mckenzie, is about to get a dual release in the Caribbean and North America. The novel comes to the world through a strategic alliance godfathered by literary insider Kwame Dawes to deepen what is seen as Caribbean publishing’s global footprint.
The book will have its North American release in New York this coming Tuesday, November 17, and will be officially launched in the Caribbean a few days later.
A Million Aunties follows American-born artist Chris who is seeking solitude, after a personal tragedy upends his world, and travels to his mother’s homeland, Jamaica, in a bid to find peace. He expects to spend his time painting in solitude, coming to terms with his loss and the fractured relationship with his father. But instead he discovers a new extended and complicated family, with their own startling stories, including a love triangle. The people he meets help him to heal, even as he supports them in unexpected ways, through his art. Told from different points of view, this is a compelling novel about unlikely love, friendship, and community, with several surprises along the way. The story takes place against the backdrop of rural Jamaica, New York City and Paris.
The work has already been receiving high praise from fellow writers and critics.
“Under her deceptively revealing title, Alecia Mckenzie recreates Jamaica’s enduring traditions in fresh and illuminating ways that make this one of the most avant garde fictions I have read in a long time,” noted fellow Jamaican writer Curdella Forbes, author of A Tall History of Sugar.
“The promise of Blue Banyan Books as a dynamic and urgent literary publishing intervention in the Caribbean is exciting to me, and I believe that a partnership with friends like Akashic Books is exactly the kind of arrangement that can make this reality,” said Dawes.
He added that Mckenzie’s novel provided a great start to what is intended to be a series of publications.
“Launching this partnership with Alecia Mckenzie’s work is a godsend, and it promises for a great future. Tanya Batson Savage is a fierce and committed book-lover and entrepreneur, and I can think of no better person to be at the helm of such a project,” said Dawes.
Mckenzie reveals she was honoured and pleased to receive Dawes’ request, which came while she was attempting to reconstruct the novel, the first draft having been stolen with a laptop.
“This initiative is an example of what can be achieved when we work together, putting our energies into backing a vibrant Caribbean publishing sector,” said Mckenzie. “The rewriting was a challenging process, but Kwame’s e-mail provided added motivation to continue. I cannot thank him enough for all he does for fellow writers. My huge appreciation goes equally to publishers Blue Banyan and Akashic Books for their untiring support of Caribbean stories,” Mckenzie said.
Mckenzie is also the author of Sweetheart, winner of a Commonwealth Book Prize and the Prix Carbet des lycéens; the novella Doctors Orders and the collections Stories From Yard and Satellite City, which was the winner of a Commonwealth Writers Best First Book
Prize.