"A dazzlingly powerful tale of two families, social change and inequalities in 1940s Trinidad."
Intense, tender and raw, Kevin Jared Hosein’s Hungry Ghosts tells an immersive story of two families from very different sides of the track in 1940s Trinidad. It’s a mystery around a man’s disappearance, a tale of social inequalities and sweeping social change, and a novel whose characters and communities feel blisteringly real.
“Sometime in the 1940s, Trinidad. Four boys ventured to the river to perform a blood oath. Two brothers and two cousins… ‘Gonna have nothin more important than this,’ the twins told the cousins.” So begins Hungry Ghosts, introducing us to some of the Saroops who live in one of the dilapidated sugarcane estate barracks that lie “scattered like half-buried bones across the plain, strewn from their colonial corpse.” This is Trinidad as the island nears the end of British colonialism, as the Americans arrive after Nazi U-boats are spotted in the Caribbean Sea, demolishing a village to make room for their base. As one character remarks, “times change”, and a sense of change and uprooting swells through this story.
High on the hill above the barracks, Dalton Changoor and his young wife Marlee live in luxury on their farm. One day, Dalton vanishes, leaving a mysterious note, and leaving Marlee exposed to dangers, so she invites one of their labourers to work as a watchman for a handsome stipend. As the lives of those down in the barracks and those high on the hill become entangled, we witness intense struggles to change the status quo and one’s life, and the complex consequences of those struggles. Hosein’s storytelling is sublime as the story builds with tremendous intensity. His writing is succulent, muscular and brilliantly impactful. What a book.
| Primary Genre | Literary Fiction |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
The music was still playing when Dalton Changoor vanished into thin air . . .
On a hill overlooking Bell Village sits the Changoor farm, where Dalton and Marlee Changoor live in luxury unrecognisable to those who reside in the farm's shadow. Down below is the barrack, a ramshackle building of wood and tin, divided into rooms occupied by whole families. Among these families are the Saroops - Hans, Shweta, and their son, Krishna, who live hard lives of backbreaking work, grinding poverty and devotion to faith.
When Dalton Changoor goes missing and Marlee's safety is compromised, farmhand Hans is lured by the promise of a handsome stipend to move to the farm as watchman. But as the mystery of Dalton's disappearance unfolds their lives become hellishly entwined, and the small community altered forever.
Hungry Ghosts is a mesmerising novel about violence, religion, family and class, rooted in the wild and pastoral landscape of colonial central Trinidad.
Hungry Ghosts features in the following genres: Historical Fiction, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Narrative theme: Social issues, Fiction, General Fiction, Fiction: narrative themes, Books of the Month, Recommendations, Literary Fiction
Hungry Ghosts is available in Paperback, Hardback
Hungry Ghosts was written by Kevin Jared Hosein and published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Hungry Ghosts has 352 pages
£15.29
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