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The Pages of the Sea
On a Caribbean island in the mid-1960s, a young girl copes with the heavy cost of migration.
When her mother sails to England to find work, Wheeler and her older sisters are left behind on their Caribbean island with their aunts and cousins. Though her sisters look after her with varying levels of patience, Wheeler couldn’t feel more alone. She does her best to navigate uncertain rules about where and with whom she spends her time, but the tensions in the family home only seem to grow more opaque—and more threatening. Everyone tells her that soon her mother will send for her, but how long will it be, and why does it feel like there’s no one looking out for her at all?
A story of sisterhood, secrets, and the sacrifices of love, The Pages of the Sea is a tenderly lyrical portrait of innocence and a heartbreaking evocation of what it’s like to be a child left behind.
When her mother sails to England to find work, Wheeler and her older sisters are left behind on their Caribbean island with their aunts and cousins. Though her sisters look after her with varying levels of patience, Wheeler couldn’t feel more alone. She does her best to navigate uncertain rules about where and with whom she spends her time, but the tensions in the family home only seem to grow more opaque—and more threatening. Everyone tells her that soon her mother will send for her, but how long will it be, and why does it feel like there’s no one looking out for her at all?
A story of sisterhood, secrets, and the sacrifices of love, The Pages of the Sea is a tenderly lyrical portrait of innocence and a heartbreaking evocation of what it’s like to be a child left behind.
312 pages, Paperback
Published October 1, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 26, 2025
Shortlisted for the 2025 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature
Shortlisted for the 2025 RSL Christopher Bland Prize for debut works by authors aged over 50
She in hav no farda, she in hav no mudda. She in hav nobody … dey mudda in sending f’dem.
Losing faith in her mother, resenting Hesta, Wheeler felt alone in the world. She remembered Christmas shopping with her sisters, being in the backstreet bakery eating bakes-n-souse.
The Pages of the Sea is Anne Hawk's debut novel.
It is set in the first months of 1966 on an unnamed, but beautifully evoked, Caribbean island and centred around Wheeler, a young girl.
Just before Christmas 1965, Wheeler's mother had sailed on a Geest banana boat to the UK as part of the Windrush generation, leaving Wheeler and her two older, teenage sister Adele and Hesta behind. The three girls' father, an itinerant worker, had left the island some years early, when Wheeler was very small, looking for work in Aruba, and had ceased contact, so the girls are left in the care of their Aunt Innez, their mother's sister.
Indeed Innez's household, living in the home originally owned by Wheeler's maternal grandparents, now consists of eight in total - Innez, Celeste (another sister to Wheeler's mother), and Innez's three children (their father - or possibly more than one father - absent) Floyd, the oldest and who increasingly dominates the household, Jonathan and Donelle who is Wheeler's age. Another aunt/sister lives nearby, Geraldine, seemingly somewhat better off and, although married, childless.
This is a perfect novel for the press that published it, Weatherglass Books - see below - quietly powerful, truthful rather than overtly political. Indeed, I had to teach myself to read it - I struggled with the first 100 pages as I was waiting for some hidden drama to surface, rather than focusing on what Wheeler experiences, as a child, left without her parents, bewildered by the family politics and without a natural figure for her to turn to for clarification and comfort.
For example, the key animating action in the first third of the novel comes from a simple request from Celeste to Wheeler for the girl to go on her own on an errand to the breadshop down in the town, further than she has ever been on her own before: Y'tink y'can go down and get d'bread.. An ain let nobody see you?. When the town grapevine reports back to Innez that the young girl was seen alone on an errand in the town, it seems to cause a minor family disagreement but one which, for Wheeler, looms as a major issue. And as the novel progresses she, and the reader, gradually understands some - but only some - of the family dynamics, none of which take the forms of particularly dramatic revelations, but which have implications for Wheeler's lived experience.
Having not troubled her before, time these days seemed all the while to be shoving Wheeler around.
And while their mother has said she will send for them, Wheeler naively assumes this means any day now, watching anxiously as boats arrive and leave the harbour wondering if each is coming for her, rather than the years it it likely to take for her mother to become sufficiently secure and established in the UK. The story forms the other side of the rather better-explored implications of the generation who emigrated to the UK.
Recommended and a novel that I hope the Women's Prize judges will recognise.
Weatherglass Books
Weatherglass Books is a new independent press founded by Neil Griffiths (novelist and founder of the Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses) and Damian Lanigan (novelist and playwright).
Weatherglass was founded on a shared love of Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower and a shared fear that it wouldn’t find a publisher today.
Weatherglass Books wants to clear a space for the next The Blue Flower.
“Running the Republic of Consciousness Prize I read hundreds of novels from small presses and loved a great many, but I did feel an absence of novels that were somehow exquisite at the simplest level: great story-telling built up from beautiful sentence-making.” Neil Griffiths, co-publisher
"We’re looking for intelligent, original, beautiful writing, and we're finding it. Additionally - maybe it's a reaction to the unhinged, fictional-seeming times we live in - we find writers trying to be truthful. It's a fascinating combination: writers who have extraordinary things to say, and are saying them with energy and style, whilst also trying to express something real and true about the world. It's bracing and exciting. It feels like the perfect time to start a literary press.” Damian Lanigan, co-publisher
Shortlisted for the 2025 RSL Christopher Bland Prize for debut works by authors aged over 50
She in hav no farda, she in hav no mudda. She in hav nobody … dey mudda in sending f’dem.
Losing faith in her mother, resenting Hesta, Wheeler felt alone in the world. She remembered Christmas shopping with her sisters, being in the backstreet bakery eating bakes-n-souse.
The Pages of the Sea is Anne Hawk's debut novel.
It is set in the first months of 1966 on an unnamed, but beautifully evoked, Caribbean island and centred around Wheeler, a young girl.
Just before Christmas 1965, Wheeler's mother had sailed on a Geest banana boat to the UK as part of the Windrush generation, leaving Wheeler and her two older, teenage sister Adele and Hesta behind. The three girls' father, an itinerant worker, had left the island some years early, when Wheeler was very small, looking for work in Aruba, and had ceased contact, so the girls are left in the care of their Aunt Innez, their mother's sister.
Indeed Innez's household, living in the home originally owned by Wheeler's maternal grandparents, now consists of eight in total - Innez, Celeste (another sister to Wheeler's mother), and Innez's three children (their father - or possibly more than one father - absent) Floyd, the oldest and who increasingly dominates the household, Jonathan and Donelle who is Wheeler's age. Another aunt/sister lives nearby, Geraldine, seemingly somewhat better off and, although married, childless.
This is a perfect novel for the press that published it, Weatherglass Books - see below - quietly powerful, truthful rather than overtly political. Indeed, I had to teach myself to read it - I struggled with the first 100 pages as I was waiting for some hidden drama to surface, rather than focusing on what Wheeler experiences, as a child, left without her parents, bewildered by the family politics and without a natural figure for her to turn to for clarification and comfort.
For example, the key animating action in the first third of the novel comes from a simple request from Celeste to Wheeler for the girl to go on her own on an errand to the breadshop down in the town, further than she has ever been on her own before: Y'tink y'can go down and get d'bread.. An ain let nobody see you?. When the town grapevine reports back to Innez that the young girl was seen alone on an errand in the town, it seems to cause a minor family disagreement but one which, for Wheeler, looms as a major issue. And as the novel progresses she, and the reader, gradually understands some - but only some - of the family dynamics, none of which take the forms of particularly dramatic revelations, but which have implications for Wheeler's lived experience.
Having not troubled her before, time these days seemed all the while to be shoving Wheeler around.
And while their mother has said she will send for them, Wheeler naively assumes this means any day now, watching anxiously as boats arrive and leave the harbour wondering if each is coming for her, rather than the years it it likely to take for her mother to become sufficiently secure and established in the UK. The story forms the other side of the rather better-explored implications of the generation who emigrated to the UK.
Recommended and a novel that I hope the Women's Prize judges will recognise.
Weatherglass Books
Weatherglass Books is a new independent press founded by Neil Griffiths (novelist and founder of the Republic of Consciousness Prize for Small Presses) and Damian Lanigan (novelist and playwright).
Weatherglass was founded on a shared love of Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower and a shared fear that it wouldn’t find a publisher today.
Weatherglass Books wants to clear a space for the next The Blue Flower.
“Running the Republic of Consciousness Prize I read hundreds of novels from small presses and loved a great many, but I did feel an absence of novels that were somehow exquisite at the simplest level: great story-telling built up from beautiful sentence-making.” Neil Griffiths, co-publisher
"We’re looking for intelligent, original, beautiful writing, and we're finding it. Additionally - maybe it's a reaction to the unhinged, fictional-seeming times we live in - we find writers trying to be truthful. It's a fascinating combination: writers who have extraordinary things to say, and are saying them with energy and style, whilst also trying to express something real and true about the world. It's bracing and exciting. It feels like the perfect time to start a literary press.” Damian Lanigan, co-publisher
July 16, 2024
A story of the children left behind in the Windrush generation The Pages Of The Sea is a story of love, sacrifice, and familial ties.
When Wheeler's mother sets sail from a Caribbean Island in the 1960s to find work in England, Wheeler is left with her two aunts, her two big sisters, and three cousins. Wheeler longs for the day her mother will send for her as promised. She feels completely isolated and alone, and although her family on the island tries to look after her physical needs, there's very little in the way of emotional warmth. Her sisters often have little patience with her, and there's a lot of tension in the house that Wheeler desperately tries to navigate all whilst following the rules of where she can go and with whom.
A powerful, evocative story about abandonment and heartbreak that gives the reader a perspective that is rarely spoken about in literature. I found this to be such a thought-provoking, insightful read. The sense of place is excellent, as is the use of language. Wheeler is such a strong character, and you automatically want her to get the love and time she deserves. The only thing I wasn't a huge fan of was the ending. It felt quite rushed to me and left me wanting more. I would recommend this one overall. The quality of debut novels this year is outstanding, and The Pages Of The Sea is definitely one to be appreciated.
When Wheeler's mother sets sail from a Caribbean Island in the 1960s to find work in England, Wheeler is left with her two aunts, her two big sisters, and three cousins. Wheeler longs for the day her mother will send for her as promised. She feels completely isolated and alone, and although her family on the island tries to look after her physical needs, there's very little in the way of emotional warmth. Her sisters often have little patience with her, and there's a lot of tension in the house that Wheeler desperately tries to navigate all whilst following the rules of where she can go and with whom.
A powerful, evocative story about abandonment and heartbreak that gives the reader a perspective that is rarely spoken about in literature. I found this to be such a thought-provoking, insightful read. The sense of place is excellent, as is the use of language. Wheeler is such a strong character, and you automatically want her to get the love and time she deserves. The only thing I wasn't a huge fan of was the ending. It felt quite rushed to me and left me wanting more. I would recommend this one overall. The quality of debut novels this year is outstanding, and The Pages Of The Sea is definitely one to be appreciated.
November 24, 2024
This is the story of Wheeler, a little girl aged probably about 8 or 9 although it’s left for the reader to decide – she’s at primary school anyway – who has been left behind on an un-named Caribbean island when her mother goes to England to find work. There’s been a lot written about the Windrush generation but mostly in terms of the experiences of the people who came to the UK. This is a voice for those left behind. It is also a voice for any little girl who has been inexplicably abandoned by her mother, and as such it’s heart-rending. I listened to Anne Hawk being interviewed on BBC Woman’s Hour, and she said that she herself was 4 years old when her mother left Grenada to work as a nurse in the UK; so to some extent, some of the book must be built on personal experience. It is no surprise that much of the book shows Wheeler trying to make sense of a world where her mother is no longer there to help her interpret it, and there is an undercurrent of Wheeler trying to find an alternative attachment figure who can help her navigate an often uncertain and sometimes dangerous world.
Wheeler has two older sisters, Adele and Hesta; her father disappeared some time ago. When their mother leaves for England, she places her three girls with two of her sisters, Tant Innez and Tant Celeste. The house is very crowded – as well as the two aunts there are three boys; the older Floyd, who has started work as an apprentice carpenter, and two younger boys, Donelle and Jonathan. Wheeler and Donelle become friends and have the usual escapades and fallings-out that characterise young children’s lives.
The story gives a detailed account of Wheeler’s new life and her difficulties understanding what’s going on; Innez and Celeste don’t talk to each other, Floyd is inexplicably vicious and threatening, particularly to Celeste but also to anyone else he doesn’t like; Adele and Hesta seem to know things about their relatives but they don’t tell Wheeler, perhaps through a misguided sense of trying to protect her. Wheeler is confused a lot of the time, because she is so little and her mother isn't there to explain things to her. This reader at least was additionally confused because much of the book is written through Wheeler’s young eyes and using her language, which is some kind of Creole or patios, possibly Grenadian Creole. The language is challenging and it took me a while to crack it; this challenge is worth it, but I do wonder if it will put some readers off.
Perhaps for this reason, the first time round reading the book I found it hard to work out what was going on with the Innez/Celeste/Floyd situation; I think Celeste pinched Innez’s man and even came to live in the house with her sister; she had a child by him; the child died, the father disappeared (as nearly all the fathers seem to do) and by the time the story starts, Celeste has taken over running the house, and Innez has permanently retired to her bedroom. Floyd’s ongoing fury is, one assumes, because his mother has been betrayed and on top of that there are now 3 extra children living in his home.
Celeste is mourning her dead child, and Wheeler is missing her mother very badly. In the early stages of the novel, they bond and it looks as though Wheeler might find the love and care she needs from a mother figure. Floyd soon puts a stop to this. But without a mother – and indeed a father – Wheeler is adrift and vulnerable to cruel, irrational and inexplicable injustices. One aunt sends her shopping; the other one punishes her for it. Floyd beats her mercilessly with his belt and neither aunt comes to her rescue. This all makes for very hard reading; only her older sisters offer her some limited comfort.
Eventually there’s a show down and Celeste flees the house and Innez comes out of her room and takes over the kitchen again. During the preceding weeks, Wheeler has come to know an uncle and aunt (the aunt is another sister of her mother’s – I think) and to find out that they actually wanted to adopt her before her mother went to England. The final scenes are of little Wheeler escaping the house and running off to go to her aunt and uncle’s house and one desperately hopes that it will all finally work out for her.
I enjoyed the book and given that it is in part at least about a child growing up in the 60s, I found myself comparing Wheeler’s life to my own 50s and 60s childhood, which was odd given that the environment was so different. My family history was much more pedestrian than hers, and certainly more comfortable, but nevertheless her confusion about what was going on in the world of older children and adults resonated with me. And at the same time like Donelle and Wheeler we children experienced much more independence and autonomy than children nowadays. It’s a cliché, but we did roam the fields, ride off on our bikes, climb trees and fall out of them (in my brother’s case, he fell off some scaffolding on a building site), and make unsuitable friends.
But Wheeler’s and Donelle’s life is far harder, even though they are not living in extreme poverty; when Donelle cuts his leg very badly, none of the adults seem to take much notice and the poor little chap just limps around with a horrible gash in his leg. Wheeler is traumatised by Celeste ineffectively killing a chicken but the adults don’t seem to care, and when she’s served dinner, she just has to eat up the bony chicken neck because she does not possess “the luxury of not eating it.”
I enjoyed the writing; some passages are beautifully observed with a calm, quiet, detail. The headless-chicken-incident stays with me, as well as the stairs where each of the children have their own step to sit and eat their meals. I can see the harbour and the steep little roads, and feel the oppressive heat. The passages where Hawk writes about people walking in the velvety dark are very well done and the coming and going of the Geest banana boat in the harbour, triggering memories of her mother, is cleverly done.
I think the book is a bit uneven, and I guess that’s something to do with plot and structure. For the first half of the book, one feels it is a description of what it was like for this poor little girl to be left with this dysfunctional family and I should say that as well as trauma, there are moments of humour and delight and joy. But I think the mysterious reasons for the sour relationships among the aunts could have been left unclear and I don’t think that would have been to the book’s detriment. The final explanation – such as it is – that deals with some of the issues, feels a bit rushed and I’m not sure it was necessary for Celeste and Wheeler to both, separately, escape the impossibly tormenting household. While the ending offers some hope that Wheeler might be moving into a kinder and more empathic family, I might have given 5 rather than 4 starts if Wheeler’s sense of loss and confusion had simply continued and the book left as a carefully drawn and beautifully observed account of a child left behind on this beautiful island.
Wheeler has two older sisters, Adele and Hesta; her father disappeared some time ago. When their mother leaves for England, she places her three girls with two of her sisters, Tant Innez and Tant Celeste. The house is very crowded – as well as the two aunts there are three boys; the older Floyd, who has started work as an apprentice carpenter, and two younger boys, Donelle and Jonathan. Wheeler and Donelle become friends and have the usual escapades and fallings-out that characterise young children’s lives.
The story gives a detailed account of Wheeler’s new life and her difficulties understanding what’s going on; Innez and Celeste don’t talk to each other, Floyd is inexplicably vicious and threatening, particularly to Celeste but also to anyone else he doesn’t like; Adele and Hesta seem to know things about their relatives but they don’t tell Wheeler, perhaps through a misguided sense of trying to protect her. Wheeler is confused a lot of the time, because she is so little and her mother isn't there to explain things to her. This reader at least was additionally confused because much of the book is written through Wheeler’s young eyes and using her language, which is some kind of Creole or patios, possibly Grenadian Creole. The language is challenging and it took me a while to crack it; this challenge is worth it, but I do wonder if it will put some readers off.
Perhaps for this reason, the first time round reading the book I found it hard to work out what was going on with the Innez/Celeste/Floyd situation; I think Celeste pinched Innez’s man and even came to live in the house with her sister; she had a child by him; the child died, the father disappeared (as nearly all the fathers seem to do) and by the time the story starts, Celeste has taken over running the house, and Innez has permanently retired to her bedroom. Floyd’s ongoing fury is, one assumes, because his mother has been betrayed and on top of that there are now 3 extra children living in his home.
Celeste is mourning her dead child, and Wheeler is missing her mother very badly. In the early stages of the novel, they bond and it looks as though Wheeler might find the love and care she needs from a mother figure. Floyd soon puts a stop to this. But without a mother – and indeed a father – Wheeler is adrift and vulnerable to cruel, irrational and inexplicable injustices. One aunt sends her shopping; the other one punishes her for it. Floyd beats her mercilessly with his belt and neither aunt comes to her rescue. This all makes for very hard reading; only her older sisters offer her some limited comfort.
Eventually there’s a show down and Celeste flees the house and Innez comes out of her room and takes over the kitchen again. During the preceding weeks, Wheeler has come to know an uncle and aunt (the aunt is another sister of her mother’s – I think) and to find out that they actually wanted to adopt her before her mother went to England. The final scenes are of little Wheeler escaping the house and running off to go to her aunt and uncle’s house and one desperately hopes that it will all finally work out for her.
I enjoyed the book and given that it is in part at least about a child growing up in the 60s, I found myself comparing Wheeler’s life to my own 50s and 60s childhood, which was odd given that the environment was so different. My family history was much more pedestrian than hers, and certainly more comfortable, but nevertheless her confusion about what was going on in the world of older children and adults resonated with me. And at the same time like Donelle and Wheeler we children experienced much more independence and autonomy than children nowadays. It’s a cliché, but we did roam the fields, ride off on our bikes, climb trees and fall out of them (in my brother’s case, he fell off some scaffolding on a building site), and make unsuitable friends.
But Wheeler’s and Donelle’s life is far harder, even though they are not living in extreme poverty; when Donelle cuts his leg very badly, none of the adults seem to take much notice and the poor little chap just limps around with a horrible gash in his leg. Wheeler is traumatised by Celeste ineffectively killing a chicken but the adults don’t seem to care, and when she’s served dinner, she just has to eat up the bony chicken neck because she does not possess “the luxury of not eating it.”
I enjoyed the writing; some passages are beautifully observed with a calm, quiet, detail. The headless-chicken-incident stays with me, as well as the stairs where each of the children have their own step to sit and eat their meals. I can see the harbour and the steep little roads, and feel the oppressive heat. The passages where Hawk writes about people walking in the velvety dark are very well done and the coming and going of the Geest banana boat in the harbour, triggering memories of her mother, is cleverly done.
I think the book is a bit uneven, and I guess that’s something to do with plot and structure. For the first half of the book, one feels it is a description of what it was like for this poor little girl to be left with this dysfunctional family and I should say that as well as trauma, there are moments of humour and delight and joy. But I think the mysterious reasons for the sour relationships among the aunts could have been left unclear and I don’t think that would have been to the book’s detriment. The final explanation – such as it is – that deals with some of the issues, feels a bit rushed and I’m not sure it was necessary for Celeste and Wheeler to both, separately, escape the impossibly tormenting household. While the ending offers some hope that Wheeler might be moving into a kinder and more empathic family, I might have given 5 rather than 4 starts if Wheeler’s sense of loss and confusion had simply continued and the book left as a carefully drawn and beautifully observed account of a child left behind on this beautiful island.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 28, 2024
This is a very interesting and emotive look at the effect of the Windrush exodus on those left behind. Seen through the eyes of Wheeler a young girl whose mother left their Caribbean home for England in the mid 1960’s looking for work. Wheeler now lives with her two elder sisters, two aunts and three cousins in what was the family home, built by her grandparents and extended over the years. Full disclosure I really struggled with the narrative written in patois which was a shame as it slowed down my reading of what was a fascinating story. That said I’m glad I stuck with it.
Briefly, although she plays with her cousin Donelle, who is the same age, Wheeler is lonely. She struggles to understand the rules of the household, where she can go, who she can see, and has to deal with new people and a new school. All she really wants to know is when her mother will send for them as she promised.
My heart went out to Wheeler, she seemed such a sensitive child and the things she had to deal with were just not fair. I was obviously aware of the Windrush but I don’t think it had entered my mind that so many children were left behind - some forever. This is even more poignant when you learn that the author was one of these children and you can understand why this such an touching read. An emotional and insightful story of an innocent child who desperately misses her mother and struggles with a life that is turned upside down overnight. Heartbreaking.
Briefly, although she plays with her cousin Donelle, who is the same age, Wheeler is lonely. She struggles to understand the rules of the household, where she can go, who she can see, and has to deal with new people and a new school. All she really wants to know is when her mother will send for them as she promised.
My heart went out to Wheeler, she seemed such a sensitive child and the things she had to deal with were just not fair. I was obviously aware of the Windrush but I don’t think it had entered my mind that so many children were left behind - some forever. This is even more poignant when you learn that the author was one of these children and you can understand why this such an touching read. An emotional and insightful story of an innocent child who desperately misses her mother and struggles with a life that is turned upside down overnight. Heartbreaking.
November 25, 2025
Thank you @kellydpike for this gifted proof copy via @weatherglassbooks book tour. ‘The Pages of the Sea’ by Anne Hawk was certainly a different read. The book is written from the perspective of ‘Wheeler’, a child who is left with her siblings, aunts and cousins whilst her mother goes to seek job opportunities. You feel her confusion and longing for her mother’s return; feeling her heart ache as she waits in earnest for her mother’s return.
The book shines a light on the wider stories of ‘the Windrush generation’. For those left on a Caribbean island in the 1960s, life continued. I enjoyed the beautifully written descriptions as well as reading about the children playing through Wheeler’s innocent eyes. However, as the story progresses, we navigate difficult family dynamics; secrets begin to unfold and some people prove themselves untrustworthy.
I did find this book quite difficult to read given the heavy dialect and unfamiliar words/ phrases which were typical of the island. It is definitely a much slower read than I would usually pick, but I’m glad I didn’t give up on it!
This was published yesterday. Check out the banner for more reviews coming out soon. If you read it, let me know what you think!
The book shines a light on the wider stories of ‘the Windrush generation’. For those left on a Caribbean island in the 1960s, life continued. I enjoyed the beautifully written descriptions as well as reading about the children playing through Wheeler’s innocent eyes. However, as the story progresses, we navigate difficult family dynamics; secrets begin to unfold and some people prove themselves untrustworthy.
I did find this book quite difficult to read given the heavy dialect and unfamiliar words/ phrases which were typical of the island. It is definitely a much slower read than I would usually pick, but I’m glad I didn’t give up on it!
This was published yesterday. Check out the banner for more reviews coming out soon. If you read it, let me know what you think!
December 24, 2025
The narrator of The Pages of the Sea, a young teen at her mother's childhood left by the mother going to find work in England, both thinks and speaks in a thick Caribbean dialect, which took some getting used to, because I don't have memory of it in my head right now--I think I could have slipped into it more easily in the past. Nevertheless, as Wheeler becomes more acquainted with the island life with her two older sisters and her cousins, especially the one her age, Donelle, there's both intimacy and mystery and a taste of trouble. I liked a scene with a botched chicken killing because I think chickens are always funny. And I've never given as much thought to kites before! And there were menacing moments with cousin Floyd, and his belt, and not only for Wheeler: "Y'mus try not to'do nutting wrong" (286). But the mother never returns. The whole book has the vibrancy of fresh eyes, in both delights and sorrow.
February 10, 2025
This may be the best book I’ve ever read in terms of showing the world from a child’s point of view, and for its vivid sense of place and time. The place is Jamaica in the mid- 1960s, where young Wheeler and her two older sisters have been left with two aunts while their mother goes to England in search of a better life. One of the aunts is a rather threatening character and has three sons, the eldest of whom is a nasty bully, while the other aunt seems afraid to show the affection Wheeler so badly needs. Wheeler isn’t given much information by anyone, and is left trying to make sense of the world.
Admittedly this is a tough read because the dialogue between characters is written in Jamaican patois, which is sometimes difficult to understand, even when you get used to it. But it’s well worth the effort.
Admittedly this is a tough read because the dialogue between characters is written in Jamaican patois, which is sometimes difficult to understand, even when you get used to it. But it’s well worth the effort.
October 13, 2025
Story describing the life of a young girl, left behind with her sister after her mother's departure to seek work in England (Windrush generation). It was very difficult to understand the local patois and though I did sympathize with Wheeler's fate, I thought it was too plodding. Figuring out what the individual character's grievances were was also a real challenge.
May 18, 2025
📚 for the not your big five book club's 5.6.25 meeting (missed because i had papers due) 📚
proper review coming soon! i will say that i may just not have been in the right headspace for it at the time.
proper review coming soon! i will say that i may just not have been in the right headspace for it at the time.
Read
January 16, 2025FNA DNF @30%
Read
January 30, 2025Can’t rate it as I didn’t finish, this is a note for myself. Could have been an interesting book but I just couldn’t get on with the Caribbean patois in which the dialogue is written
May 8, 2025
I could not get used to the dialogue - didn't finish.
May 11, 2025
I have to admit, the language in this novel eventually beat me. Reluctantly, I gave up after about 80 pages
May 15, 2025
Moving portrait of a child left behind and struggling to make sense of her world.
August 1, 2024
If you fancy being transported to Jamaica 1960’s in a poignant literary novel that truly places you in the atmospheric Caribbean, then “The Pages of the Sea” is for you.
Written in both Caribbean and Standard English, in a way that is easy to follow and understand, you truly feel you are in Wheeler’s shoes as she manoeuvres her way around life, living without her mother, asking each day ‘when we mudda sending f’us?’ My heart went out to her for her trauma, the sudden upheaval of living arrangements, a new school and growing up as a girl without her mother but at the same time the story remained at times funny, colourfully vibrant as the Caribbean is known for and enchantingly lyrical that couldn’t be more beautifully written, even by a more seasoned author.
As Windrush continues to be a major scandal in the UK after coming to people’s attention in 2018, the story of the neglected children left behind is a little talked about subject, with most of the media focusing on the adult ‘Windrush Generation’ itself. I am guilty myself of this and only now realise that some children were never sent for at all by their migrating parents.
The author has created a beautifully emotive and poignant story that portrays this plight inspired purely by the author’s own personal experience at being left behind when her mother travelled to England and which will no doubt resonate with thousands of other people too.
As a debut novel, this is one of the most powerful and important stories I’ve read and should be widely promoted to show the other tragic side to the more commonly known stories about the ‘Windrush Generation’.
#ThePagesOfTheSea - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Written in both Caribbean and Standard English, in a way that is easy to follow and understand, you truly feel you are in Wheeler’s shoes as she manoeuvres her way around life, living without her mother, asking each day ‘when we mudda sending f’us?’ My heart went out to her for her trauma, the sudden upheaval of living arrangements, a new school and growing up as a girl without her mother but at the same time the story remained at times funny, colourfully vibrant as the Caribbean is known for and enchantingly lyrical that couldn’t be more beautifully written, even by a more seasoned author.
As Windrush continues to be a major scandal in the UK after coming to people’s attention in 2018, the story of the neglected children left behind is a little talked about subject, with most of the media focusing on the adult ‘Windrush Generation’ itself. I am guilty myself of this and only now realise that some children were never sent for at all by their migrating parents.
The author has created a beautifully emotive and poignant story that portrays this plight inspired purely by the author’s own personal experience at being left behind when her mother travelled to England and which will no doubt resonate with thousands of other people too.
As a debut novel, this is one of the most powerful and important stories I’ve read and should be widely promoted to show the other tragic side to the more commonly known stories about the ‘Windrush Generation’.
#ThePagesOfTheSea - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
May 26, 2025
Longlisted for the 2025 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature and bought to read on a Caribbean holiday
Shortlisted for the RSL Christopher Bland Prize for debut books by authors over 50.
A very slow burn of a novel (in fact one that never really takes fire) and an examination of the children left-behind in the Caribbean by the Windrush generation (but told in the close third party imagined voice of one such child which rather limits the real insight and means the novel reads very much like a very well written children’s story).
The narrator is Wheeler:
Of unknown age - i would guess 6-8 and told in an age appropriate register - this is not one of those novels where a child is unrealistically precocious so the author can display their full literary credentials;
Living in an unnamed Caribbean Island whose description is appropriately circumscribed by Wheeler’s relatively limited horizons so that emphasis is placed on a different view of a familiar rooftop or a glimpse of people or boats in a gap between buildings rather than a sweeping description of the landscape;
In the mid 1960s in the year after Wheeler’s mother (their itinerant worker father long absent) sailed in a Geest banana boat to the UK leaving her three children (Wheeler and her two older sisters Adele and Hester) in a house ruled over by one of her sisters - Aunt Ineez - and where another of her sisters - Aunt Celeste and her three boy cousins (Donelle - Wheeler’s best friend and and age-mate, the slightly older Jonathan and the adult and aggressive Floyd. Nearby another Aunt Geraldine lives with her husband and seems to take an interest in the sisters particularly Wheeler.
Wheeler’s tale is told in an unusual mix of straightforward narration and Caribbean patois - often blended in the same paragraphs, the dialect I think Wheeler’s closest but still third party thoughts perhaps blended with the simultaneous colour of a third party point of view narrator. I not sure the technique is entirely successful but it’s definitely distinctive.
Much of the novel reflects Wheeler’s attempts to comprehend the mysteries and secrets of the adult world and particularly her family politics. Why did her mother not take her with her and when is she coming back? Why did she leave them with Ineez whose attitude to them is on a scale from indifference to hostility? What is her link with Geraldine? Why does Celeste stay at home all the time and why is Ineez feuding with her? Is this connected to Celeste’s baby that died - that loss being one of the few adult things Wheeler does know? Why is the angry Floyd particularly furious with Celeste and why is he allowed to get away with physical punishment of the other children - most bewilderingly (and for her the final betrayal) Wheeler herself.
Even for the first 100 pages of the novel why is her going to the shops at Celeste’s request such a big deal - infuriating Ineez and Floyd.
Some of this is resolved - in many cases rather abruptly for my tastes towards the novel’s end by direct explanations to Wheeler - others we take as more connected to the complex family dynamics.
So overall a rather simple and non impactful read.
In my view “A Trace of Sun” by Pam Williams, Longlisted for the 2024 Women’s Prize, is a much stronger, more rounded and much heavier hitting examination of the left behind generation.
Shortlisted for the RSL Christopher Bland Prize for debut books by authors over 50.
A very slow burn of a novel (in fact one that never really takes fire) and an examination of the children left-behind in the Caribbean by the Windrush generation (but told in the close third party imagined voice of one such child which rather limits the real insight and means the novel reads very much like a very well written children’s story).
The narrator is Wheeler:
Of unknown age - i would guess 6-8 and told in an age appropriate register - this is not one of those novels where a child is unrealistically precocious so the author can display their full literary credentials;
Living in an unnamed Caribbean Island whose description is appropriately circumscribed by Wheeler’s relatively limited horizons so that emphasis is placed on a different view of a familiar rooftop or a glimpse of people or boats in a gap between buildings rather than a sweeping description of the landscape;
In the mid 1960s in the year after Wheeler’s mother (their itinerant worker father long absent) sailed in a Geest banana boat to the UK leaving her three children (Wheeler and her two older sisters Adele and Hester) in a house ruled over by one of her sisters - Aunt Ineez - and where another of her sisters - Aunt Celeste and her three boy cousins (Donelle - Wheeler’s best friend and and age-mate, the slightly older Jonathan and the adult and aggressive Floyd. Nearby another Aunt Geraldine lives with her husband and seems to take an interest in the sisters particularly Wheeler.
Wheeler’s tale is told in an unusual mix of straightforward narration and Caribbean patois - often blended in the same paragraphs, the dialect I think Wheeler’s closest but still third party thoughts perhaps blended with the simultaneous colour of a third party point of view narrator. I not sure the technique is entirely successful but it’s definitely distinctive.
Much of the novel reflects Wheeler’s attempts to comprehend the mysteries and secrets of the adult world and particularly her family politics. Why did her mother not take her with her and when is she coming back? Why did she leave them with Ineez whose attitude to them is on a scale from indifference to hostility? What is her link with Geraldine? Why does Celeste stay at home all the time and why is Ineez feuding with her? Is this connected to Celeste’s baby that died - that loss being one of the few adult things Wheeler does know? Why is the angry Floyd particularly furious with Celeste and why is he allowed to get away with physical punishment of the other children - most bewilderingly (and for her the final betrayal) Wheeler herself.
Even for the first 100 pages of the novel why is her going to the shops at Celeste’s request such a big deal - infuriating Ineez and Floyd.
Some of this is resolved - in many cases rather abruptly for my tastes towards the novel’s end by direct explanations to Wheeler - others we take as more connected to the complex family dynamics.
So overall a rather simple and non impactful read.
In my view “A Trace of Sun” by Pam Williams, Longlisted for the 2024 Women’s Prize, is a much stronger, more rounded and much heavier hitting examination of the left behind generation.
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