The Shadow Bridge

by Roy A.K. Heath

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in England in 1991, this is a family saga from Guyanese novelist, Roy Heath.

Genres: Fiction

448 pages, Hardcover

First published January 26, 1989

About the author

Roy Aubrey Kelvin Heath was from Guyana, where he attended the Central High School. He came to England at age 24 to read modern languages at London University. He was a teacher from 1959, and was called to the English Bar in 1964, and the Guyana Bar in 1973.

His first novel, published in 1974, was A Man Come Home, and his 1978 novel, The Murderer won the Guardian Fiction Prize. The Shadow Bride (1988) made the Booker Prize shortlist, Kirkus Review commenting that, "It's hard to believe it didn't win."

Heath's writings were widely acclaimed, Arnon Adams calling him "truly one of the most brilliant story tellers ever"; Salman Rushdie described him as "a beautiful writer"; and Edward Blishen as "simply one of the most astonishingly good novelists of our time."

Heath died in London at the age of 81.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as it was one from my parent's shelf and I kept saving it because it was written by a Guyanese of Indian descent and I was brought up in Guyana.

I found the Guyanese elements, talking about going to specific places and mentioning lots of places where I had lived was really quite emotional. The main character was a doctor working on the sugar estates to try and help the workers ( mainly of Indian Descent) get the medical treatment they needed.

The story is basically set around the life of a woman brought from Kerala to marry a rich Guyanese Indian. I couldn't make out if she had loved him or not as messages were mixed. there were hints that she worshipped him and went into a sort of withdrawal after he died but then there were also hints that she poisoned him and I couldn't really work out which story was true.

This woman, Mrs Singh lost several babies but finally had a son, the hero of the novel called Betta. Betta trains to be a doctor in Dublin and returns to Guyana. Initially he practices in a room under his mother's house but he really want to go and work on the sugar estates.

Mrs Singh has two girls she has taken in and is bringing up sort of as her daughters but sort of as servants as they are expected to work. She also has two men who are working in the garden and live in as well.

Betta was educated as a child by a Muslim man, the Mulvi Sahib who Mrs Singh respects but is not keen on Muslims! She also has the pujaree who is a sort of Hindu 'priest' but turns out to be a bit of a con man.

Betta marries Meena and Mrs Singh doesn't like her and makes Betta and her life miserable when ever they try to see her. In fact Mrs Singh turns out to be pretty unpleasant altogether.She is eaten up with resentment and so unforgiving of the fact that Betta moves to work on the sugar estates as a medical officer rather than stay and work under her roof that she virtually disowns him. Worse she actively makes life hard for him. I think she becomes so full of hate and resentment that it comepletely takes over her life changing her entire personality.

I can't say I liked the characters, they were well portrayed and the book was extremely well written. He had the Guyanese lingo and accent down to a T as I really could hear the characters talking.

The scenes and settings were again, really well portrayed and I could see places where I knew so clearly from his descriptions and I left Guyana aged eleven so that was very good.

I found the book rather depressing though. I was really hoping that someone would come out happy and certainly that Betta would find success as despite being his mother's son he had great ambition and really wanted to help others.

I found it a bit of a rollercoaster ride, and the character's lives seemed to be rolling in a downward general direct despite small ups.

The book was Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1991 but presumably didn't win.

This is an intense book, it really draws you in but I found it was quite depressing to read. I am not sure i would rush to read another of Roy heath's books after reading this one but it did spur me to go to Google maps and really look at the places he reminded me of. I even found a couple of our old houses on the satellite images.

[Deb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have had this book on my shelf for years unread, never being able to get into it but somewhat seduced by the glowing reviews that pepper the covers. Found it hard work all the way and felt pretty unrewarded for my efforts, apart from feeling I know much more about the East Indians in Ghana than I did before.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because of an upcoming trip to Guyana and found it very interesting in terms of the cultural and historical information it provided on the country and society there.