Seen through the eyes of an eight-year-old boy this story of a black middle-class family on a sugar-estate on Jamaica in the 1950s is a powerful piece of writing, dark and disturbing and very much a page-turner. The Brookes family patriarch, Harold, is an overbearing and self-righteous man, and also an ambitious one. He feels he is a cut above the working class black people on the island and is determined that his family will be better than the rest. The tension builds as Harold is side-tracked from his duties as a stern paterfamilias and the life he has so carefully built up starts to crumble. It’s an evocative and atmospheric novel, illuminating about middle-class life on a sugar-estate, and a nuanced and insightful exploration about a group of people rarely met with in contemporary literature. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and am surprised that it has so far received little attention. At the time of writing (March 2016) there are a mere 7 reviews on Amazon UK (and one of those can be discounted) and only 3 on Goodreads. This is such a shame. The book deserves a wide readership as it’s a compelling and moving story and a really enjoyable one, beautifully written, with memorable characters, authentic dialogue and expert pacing. Highly recommended.