LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
Written with luminous, crackling style, Cane Warriors is an unforgettable account of Jamaican and British history that must be known, with an unforgettable narrator at its heart. In the words of fourteen-year-old Moa, “the hope of our dreamland churned in my belly,” a powerful statement that pulses through this extraordinary story of Tacky’s War.
Based on a revolutionary real-life 1760 Jamaican slave rebellion, a visceral sense of the atrocities Moa and his fellow field slaves are subjected to is evoked from the start. Their bodies are lashed and “roasted by a brutal sun”, Moa hasn’t seen his house-slave mama for three years, his papa lost an arm in mill machinery, and his friend Hamaya fears the day predatory white men will “come for me.”
Spurred by the death of Miss Pam who “drop inna da field and lose her life”, and led by Miss Pam’s brother Tacky, who “trod like a king” and whose brain “work quick like Anancy”, the uprising hinges on the freedom fighters killing the plantation master. While Moa is glad to be given a pivotal role in the rebellion, he fears that success and escape will mean he’ll never see his parents or Hamaya again - his conflict is palpable, but he’s set on being a cane warrior. Outside the plantation, Moa’s world is immediately transformed, with his life as a freedom fighter evoked in fine detail (I loved the depiction of him tasting creamy, fleshy sweetsop for the first time). There are bloody battles ahead, executed in the presence of Akan gods, and driven by brotherhood and hope for that dreamland. Lucidly lyrical and raw, I cannot praise Cane Warriors enough.
Joanne Owen
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Cane Warriors Synopsis
Nobody free till everybody free.Moa, a fourteen-year-old slave, gets caught up in the most significant slave rebellion in Jamaican history, paying homage to freedom fighters all over the world.Wheatle brings the struggle of slavery in the Jamaican sugar cane fields to life...A refreshing and heartbreaking story that depicts both a real-life uprising against oppression and the innate desire to be free. Highly recommended.--School Library Journal, STARRED review Alex Wheatle is a finalist for the 2021 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature!Short-listed for the 2022 Yoto Carnegie Greenaway Award!Shortlisted for the 2020 Caribbean Readers Awards (Best Young Adult Novel)!Winner of a 2021 Young Quills Award for Best Historical Fiction!Alex Wheatle departs from his award-winning contemporary novels for a superb foray into historical fiction...Wheatle's characteristic kennings and coinages...heighten this intense, affecting story of courage, bloodshed and commitment to freedom at all costs.--The Guardian (UK)Cane Warriors centers the voice of the enslaved rather than white abolitionists. In this way, readers face the reality of enslaved people who fought for their own freedom.--Worlds of WordsI read it in one sitting. I simply could not put it down. Cane Warriors is such a powerful narrative of trauma and triumph...Wheatle celebrates the heroism that Tacky inspires. He tells the riveting story of 14-year-old Moa who bravely joins Tackys army.--The Gleaner (Jamaica), recommended by Carolyn CooperSet in 1760, Cane Warriors, the latest young adult novel by Alex Wheatle, is a fictional account of a key but often overlooked event in Jamaican history: Tackys Rebellion, a major revolt by enslaved Africans, planned via an island-wide conspiracy. In Wheatles narrative, a 14-year-old named Moa is caught up in the growing revolt, driven by a fierce desire for freedom and self-determination.--Saturday Express (Trinidad & Tobago)Tension-filled and heart-stopping, a work of edgy brilliance that brims with existential fervor...Excellent.--Kaieteur News (Guyana)This is a harrowing young adult novel; still, it is based on true history, and the story needs to be told. The brave freedom fighters of Tackys Rebellion should be remembered and honored...Recommended.--Historical Novels ReviewAlex Wheatle writes from a place of honesty and passion, with the full knowledge and understanding that change can only happen through words and actions.--Steve McQueen, Academy Award-winning film directorMoa is fourteen. The only life he has ever known is toiling on the Frontier sugarcane plantation for endless hot days, fearing the vicious whips of the overseers. Then one night he learns of an uprising, led by the charismatic Tacky. Moa is to be a cane warrior, and fight for the freedom of all the enslaved people in the nearby plantations. But before they can escape, Moa and his friend Keverton must face their first great task: to kill their overseer, Misser Donaldson. Time is ticking as the day of the uprising approaches . . . Irresistible, gripping, and unforgettable, Cane Warriors follows the true story of Tacky's War in Jamaica, 1760.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781617758737 |
| Publication date: |
20th October 2020 |
| Author: |
Alex Wheatle |
| Publisher: |
Akashic Books |
| Format: |
Ebook (Epub) |
| Primary Genre |
Young Adult Fiction
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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Press Reviews
Alex Wheatle Press Reviews
Alex Wheatle writes from a place of honesty and passion with the full knowledge and understanding that change can only happen through words and actions - Steve McQueen
It's passionate, important and Wheatle's best novel yet -- Children's Book of the Week - The Times
An important powerful novel about hope, freedom and brotherhood - Observer
The importance of this book cannot be overstated. Alex Wheatle takes the truth, and creates fiction to illuminate that truth. He too is a warrior. A word warrior. I saw my ancestors in this book, and now I know that Alex and I really are brothers. -- Benjamin Zephaniah What a book. Muscular and powerful but utterly tender. My favourite Alex Wheatle novel yet -- Kiran Milwood Hargrave -
Author
About Alex Wheatle
Born in 1963 to Jamaican parents living in Brixton, ALEX WHEATLE spent most of his childhood in a Surrey children's home. He returned to Brixton in 1977 where he founded the Crucial Rocker sound system and performed his own songs and lyrics under the name of Yardman Irie. He spent a short stint in prison following the Brixton uprising of 1981. Following his release from prison he continued to write poems and lyrics and became known as the Brixton Bard. Alex's first novel, BRIXTON ROCK, was published to critical acclaim in 1999. Five more novels, EAST OF ACRE LANE, THE SEVEN SISTERS, ISLAND SONGS, CHECKERS and THE DIRTY SOUTH followed, all highly praised. His books are on school reading lists, Alex takes part in Black History Month every year, works with Streatham Youth Community Trust, helping to run a homework club. He is representing English PEN, and tours the country with his one-man show, UPRISING. He teaches in various places including Lambeth College, holds workshops in prisons and is frequently invited to schools to speak to students, inspiring in them with his own story a passion for literature. Alex also appears regularly on BBC1's The One Show and on radio. In the autumn of 2010 he wrote and performed his own one-man autobiographical show for Tara Arts, UPRISING, and took the performance on tour in October 2012. He was at Harrogate Crime Writing Festival in July 2011. He was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list for services to literature in 2008. A favourite of reading groups and libraries, he is UK's most read Black British author. He is working on a non-fiction book about Black Britain and on more Young Adult novels. He lives with his family in South London.
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