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Lady Moses
This powerful debut novel is the story of Jacinta Moses, the child of a passionate and courageous love. Jacinta's father is a black African writer, Simon Moses; her mother, Louise, is a white British actress. Her father dies when she is young, sending her mother into a state of madness and depression. Impoverished and alone, Jacinta longs for a better life. As she grows older, however, prejudice--her own as well as others'--leads her to make adventurous but damaging choices. Jacinta flees from London to the American South and marries a white man. When her daughter, Lady, is born with a disability, ruining her hopes for a picture-perfect life, Jacinta travels to Africa to search for answers in her father's homeland. Her experiences there will change her forever. In Africa she is forced to draw on her family's great strengths and weave something brilliant out of their history of pain. Lady Moses is about being both black and white. It is about passionate characters in extraordinary situations; about how one woman employs her creativity, intelligence, and strength to forge an identity. With its unflinching insight and dazzling prose, Lady Moses marks the entry of a sparkling new voice in African American fiction.
400 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1998
3 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
About the author
Lucinda Roy
14 books49 followersLucinda Roy is an award-winning novelist, poet, and memoirist and author of the speculative slave narrative novel trilogy entitled THE DREAMBIRD CHRONICLES (Tor Books/Macmillan). THE FREEDOM RACE, the first novel in the trilogy, was published in July 2021. FLYING THE COOP, the second novel in the series, is out in July 2022.
Lucinda Roy, Alumni Distinguished Professor in Creative Writing at Virginia Tech gives keynotes and addresses on race and racism, creative writing, education, and campus safety. One of the most pervasive refrains in her writing and painting is slavery and the miracles that accompanied it--survival and the ability to translate suffering into something rich and rare and strange.
Born in the U.K. in Battersea, South London to Namba Roy, Jamaican writer, artist, and factory worker, and Yvonne Roy, an English actor and teacher, Lucinda Roy has lived and taught in the U.S., the U.K., and West Africa.
Her first two novels Lady Moses, a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, and Hotel Alleluia were published by HarperCollins. In 1995, Roy's poetry collection, The Hummingbirds, was selected by Lucille Clifton as the winner of the Eighth Mountain Poetry Prize. Her most recent poetry collection Fabric(Willow Books) appeared in 2017. She won the Baxter Hathaway Poetry Prize for her long slave narrative poem "Needlework."
In 2009, following the mass shootings at Virginia Tech, her memoir-critique NO RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT: WHAT WE'VE LEARNED FROM THE TRAGEDY AT VIRGINIA TECH was published by Random House.
She has appeared on many television, radio, and online venues, and her prose and poetry have been published in numerous magazines and journals. Professor Roy is working on the third novel in THE DREAMBIRD CHRONICLES series, an illustrated children's book, and, as time permits, a series of oil paintings depicting the Middle Passage. She lives with her husband in Blacksburg and teaches in the undergraduate and graduate creative writing programs at Virginia Tech.
Lucinda Roy, Alumni Distinguished Professor in Creative Writing at Virginia Tech gives keynotes and addresses on race and racism, creative writing, education, and campus safety. One of the most pervasive refrains in her writing and painting is slavery and the miracles that accompanied it--survival and the ability to translate suffering into something rich and rare and strange.
Born in the U.K. in Battersea, South London to Namba Roy, Jamaican writer, artist, and factory worker, and Yvonne Roy, an English actor and teacher, Lucinda Roy has lived and taught in the U.S., the U.K., and West Africa.
Her first two novels Lady Moses, a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, and Hotel Alleluia were published by HarperCollins. In 1995, Roy's poetry collection, The Hummingbirds, was selected by Lucille Clifton as the winner of the Eighth Mountain Poetry Prize. Her most recent poetry collection Fabric(Willow Books) appeared in 2017. She won the Baxter Hathaway Poetry Prize for her long slave narrative poem "Needlework."
In 2009, following the mass shootings at Virginia Tech, her memoir-critique NO RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT: WHAT WE'VE LEARNED FROM THE TRAGEDY AT VIRGINIA TECH was published by Random House.
She has appeared on many television, radio, and online venues, and her prose and poetry have been published in numerous magazines and journals. Professor Roy is working on the third novel in THE DREAMBIRD CHRONICLES series, an illustrated children's book, and, as time permits, a series of oil paintings depicting the Middle Passage. She lives with her husband in Blacksburg and teaches in the undergraduate and graduate creative writing programs at Virginia Tech.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
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July 4, 2007What I learned from this book:
"Drowned, he told me. Swimming with some friends. They seen her go down. They called. She waved back at them. Kids thought she was just playacting...Could be we're all waving like that, Quasar said. And the lousy part about it is no one ever knows--not even the ones who's doing the waving."
"I can't remember what Esther sang about that night, but I thought it had something to do with peace. In the West we call it inner peace, but for me in Africa it was stillness. It is standing in the heart of the bush and feeling its pulse and calling it home."
I found Lucinda Roy in the news articles about the Virginia School shootings. She was the professor that had read the writings that disturbed her. On a Wiki. page, a comment says that she was just looking for publicity. I think after reading this book that she knew.
"Drowned, he told me. Swimming with some friends. They seen her go down. They called. She waved back at them. Kids thought she was just playacting...Could be we're all waving like that, Quasar said. And the lousy part about it is no one ever knows--not even the ones who's doing the waving."
"I can't remember what Esther sang about that night, but I thought it had something to do with peace. In the West we call it inner peace, but for me in Africa it was stillness. It is standing in the heart of the bush and feeling its pulse and calling it home."
I found Lucinda Roy in the news articles about the Virginia School shootings. She was the professor that had read the writings that disturbed her. On a Wiki. page, a comment says that she was just looking for publicity. I think after reading this book that she knew.
November 15, 2018
Beautifully written.
October 18, 2020
A little slow but a great storyline
October 3, 2016
Lucinda Roy presents the unique narrative of a girl learning to face the harsh reality of racism. It is the well thought-out narrative and the believability of young Jacinta Moses’ story that truly makes this a novel to remember. There’s an authenticity in her tale for many Americans who struggle to figure out their identity as non-whites. Roy manages to portray this struggle remarkably well in Lady Moses. She is also able to make Jacinta’s character empathetic to the audience while still maintaining that realism. Her characters are not always good people but they’re true to their nature.
Review by Dennise Garcia
Review by Dennise Garcia
October 22, 2008
At times, the author's persnal voice seems to break through so clearly that this reads like a freshman's effort in a memoir writing class. At others, the novel is smooth and well-written as it describes the narrator's childhood: being poor in Britain, having a West African father (who dies when she is young) and British mother. Through trials and tribulations, Jacinta grows, marries, and moves to Virginia where she has a daughter with the abusive (until the end) white man she married. Eventually, she winds up in West Africa to re-connect with her father's past and find her own direction.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 25, 2017
Lady Moses was one of the first books that sent my emotions spiraling. There were so many ups and downs for the characters that I could hardly take it. This book had an emotional, realistic and dreamy feel to it and I enjoyed every moment of this emotional roller coaster.
December 28, 2012
One of those books I wanted to like much more than I did. The first half was amazing but the second half slowly started to disappoint. Strong writing regardless.
February 22, 2016
Unexpected and raw, exceptionally written.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews