The Same Earth

by Kei Miller

When Imelda Richardson leaves the small village of Watersgate, Jamaica, armed only with one small suitcase, she is doing so for the second time. One of the throng of young Jamaicans who left the island after the devastating hurricane of 1974, Imelda's journey has taken her to England, to the home of ganja-growing rebel Purletta Johnson, the arms of fake Northerner Ozzie, and a law degree. But when her mother dies Imelda returns to Watersgate, choosing Jamaica over England. 1983 is still a couple of years shy of the great dancehall explosion in which artists like Shabba Ranks would sing how he "loved punany bad," and the village is still dominated by the Evangelical church and the thundering voice of Pastor Braithwaite. When Tessa Walcott's panties are stolen—and in the absence of Perry Mason—she and Imelda decide to set up a neighborhood watch. But they haven't counted on Pastor Braithwaite and the crusading zeal of Evangelist Millie. As a Pentecostal fervor sweeps through the village, the tensions between old and new come to a head.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Historical Fiction, Christianity, Humor, British Literature, Literary Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Kei Miller was born in Jamaica in 1978. He completed an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and a PhD in English literature at the University of Glasgow. He works in multiple genres - poetry, fiction and non-fiction and has won major prizes across these genres. He won the Forward Prize for poetry and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. He has taught at the Universities of Glasgow, London, and Exeter. He is presently Professor of English at the University of Miami.

Reviews

[BookOfCinz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Updated April 1, 2021

One of my 2021 goals is to re-read all of Kei Miller’s work. I decided to start with SAME EARTH because it was his first novel. I like to experience an author from the start of their novels and what an amazing start.

In SAME EARTH we are taken to a small village in Watersgate, Jamaica. We are introduced to the different villagers who resides and visit Watersgate. The core of the story follows Imelda Richardson but we get an overall look into the lives of those around her. As with a lot of Miller’s work there is the presence of religion, folklore, immigrant and finding community, all of these were well executed.

Miller’s ability to take a small piece of Jamaica and carve it into a story that resonates is unmatched. How he takes us and pulls back the curtain on this village, you literally feel like you are watching over these people and their lives. You cannot help but cheer for them because they are so deserving. The comedy is unmatched, you literally find yourself in situations that makes you laugh out loud.

This is truly a great read.

February 2019
This is my second book by Kei Miller and I was not disappointed. I think Miller's style of writing is colorful, engaging and captures Jamaica and Jamaicans perfectly. From most of the reviews, I saw a lot of people either loved or really didn't like how "disjointed" the plot was and I can understand that feeling. However, that was the best part for me. I love how Miller is able to weave backstories together to create an overall plot. I did think "this book would have worked better if it was a collection of short stories" but, from reading his previous novels I noticed this is a style what works for Kei Miller.


If you are looking for a great, short but hilarious look into a Jamaica, specifically country life, this is a good place to start.

[Karen_RunwrightReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating 4.5 stars
The Same Earth is a short novel that follows several characters living in a small community in St Mary, Jamaica and while the main event happens in the 1980s, short vignettes are set in earlier decades to fully introduce their background and link their motivations. As the author does in Augustown, Miller introduces a young woman as his main character but also goes deep into the stories unfolding around her so the reader feels like he understands this young woman's ambitions but also why she might experience disappointment because of the conflicting desires of the other characters. Yet, Miller bounds all his characters to The Same Earth and shows their sameness manifested in various ways. Again, as in Augustown, we meet preachers who function as spiritual and political guides, Rastafarians experiencing oppression and see the disparity in experiences of the rich and poor.
There are hilarious moments to ease the delivery of the heart wrenching ones, like the description of a child being beaten contrasted with the child who plays a wicked prank and is spared a beating but who cries from the overwhelming emotion anyway.
And because the story is set in the mid to late 1900s, there is a storyline following a character who migrates to England and so Miller take the opportunity to present a myriad of experiences that would reflect the good, bad and funny characteristics of that life.
Miller gives us a slice of Jamaican country life with this book and although the ending may feel a little open-ended, it is also representative of a great story that doesn't end because the characters continue to live on in the reader's imagination.
A thoroughly enjoyable read!

[2TReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Missa Miller mi neva expec da ending deh. Lawd!!

-Some will say that a river that changes course is a river remembering itself-

At its core that is what The Same Earth explores: change. The changing of a village, the evolution of characters, the yielding of perceptions, and the emergence of a new power structure.

Miller has this uncanny ability to use his words to paint a vivid picture of people and place. The Same Earth is no different, with simple yet evocative words, the characters and situations of Watersgate come alive and the reader is immersed in the atmosphere.

The gossip, entitled, envious, rich, pious characters are visages through which I can envision my own community and communities just like it: the superstitions, long-held beliefs and practices, hubris, and just plain old badmind are all characteristics we have encountered or experienced

This isn't your typical saga, but that is what this feels like to me. Miller has crafted a sweeping narrative of a community that is bursting with charm, naivety, mischief, reckoning, and finality.

An intricate tapestry of country life that is hovering on the cusp of full-on modernity while still maintaining that certain 'closedness' that only a tight-knit community has.

I especially got caught up in Miller's clever way of weaving small plot points that all lead to a building crescendo, leaving you anticipatory with expectation, you aren't sure things will go the way you want, end with all the characters you love, sympathize with, caa tek a bone inna dem body, getting their just desserts; but you want that finale.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve stated quite a few times that I am a fan of disjointed storylines converging to form one whole picture. Kei Miller’s The Same Earth does that but takes that concept just a little bit further.

One day the local washerwoman loses three pairs of panties from her load, which prompts her neighbor Imelda to suggest a neighbourhood crimewatch. A pastor hears about this and says that God will do the watching and sends Imelda to damnation. Strangely enough in the evening Imelda’s house is carried away in the river.

There’s more.

The reader then gets flashbacks of other major characters of the novel. In some way they are all connected. With some sections devoted to Imelda, from her parentage to her emigration from her native Jamaica to Manchester.

Through all the storylines Miller focuses on a lot of the following topics : Fanaticism,homosexuality, love, emigration and cause and effect. Despite the amount of characters and events happening, the end result is a solid and entertaining book.

What makes The same Earth stand out is that 1) there is a small magical realist element and 2) the ending leaves a lot of questions. Oh it’s also funny. Miller’s descriptions of the townsfolk and their eccentricities is brilliant. As for the book’s title – it’s explained at the right moment in the novel.

It is obvious that I did enjoy reading The Same Earth and that it’s a good way to pass a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon.

[Areeb Ahmad (Bankrupt_Bookworm) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"This burying of the birth cord was a way to anchor the child to a specific place and home. But Desmond wasn't sure he wanted to be that kind of father, or his child that kind of child—tied to the same earth that he had been tied to, given a destiny that was never their own decision. He wanted his child to be free. To roam wherever, and find whatever was out there for him or her."

It is a novel as paint by number project and the pieces don't come in order—swatches of colour here & there, seemingly random but always purposeful, all gather up in a marvelous composite picture. Another apt comparison is a patchwork quilt, cloth squares sewn into a slowly emerging conscious underlying pattern. The disjointed elements of Miller's debut go back and forth, jump up and down time, move from one character to another, signpost and foreshadow, the whole while actively coalescing into a dynamic and fluid narrative.

The novel begins with the river changing its course and its central concern is movement and change—past and future, new and old, traditions and modernity. The vibrant voice is quite anecdotal, humorous—tugging the readers along. The characters are well-realized and Miss Millie reminded me a lot of Bev Keane from Midnight Mass. All these interweaved strands meet at a rocky end: Miller doesn't go for a concrete conclusion that makes it tense yet leaves space for hope. It is a stellar piece of storytelling with a strong sense of place.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really, really enjoyed Kei Miller's Last Warner Woman and so ordered this on inter-library loan. It's wonderful. I could hardly put it down.

Kei Miller taps into a long African (and Afro-Caribbean) tradition of story-telling. He’s a wonderful story teller, but he’s a master at weaving the strands of his stories – characters, places, incidents – in and out of each other to form the much longer narrative that makes up the novel.

The shared earth is Watersgate, Jamaica and Manchester in England. But it is also the earth shared amongst all of us as our experiences, our stories, our lives, loves, beliefs and attitudes weave in and out through each other to form the fabric of life itself.

My favorite example of this technique is the chapter titled “No Suitable Pastor”.

The pastor at Watersgate, Noel Baskin, is now old, and is going blind. He realises that his eyesight is fading so fast his ability to read his bible will disappear in weeks, even days. Furthermore there is his elderly senile wife, who for some years has been ready to die, only death refuses to come. Her desire for an end takes the form of stripping off her clothes in public and having a kind of fit, after which the neighbors, used to this, wake her up, tell her she isn’t dead yet, and get her back into her clothes.

So Reverend Baskin considers the likely candidates to replace him.

There is first: Deacon Rodney. The reader learns Deacon Rodney’s story: having left his own Seventh Day Adventist faith to marry Rose, he makes life difficult for her with his very strict sabbatarianism. He’s also a wife-beater. One day Rose comes running to church, bleeding and demanding a ‘divorcement’, as Rodney’s bitten off a bit of her ear. (There is then the embedded story of the supposed miracle of healing her deafness … only in the excitement no one remembers she wasn’t deaf.) Rodney is thrown out, but makes the mistake of beating his little sister, whose “big, big husband” and his “big, big brothers” object and beat Rodney. He returns minus a few teeth to beg Rose to take him back, and is a reformed character, but still isn’t suitable as a new pastor.

Next is Deacon Harry. In learning his story the reader learns the story of his antecedents and why Harry finds it hard to remain at home for very long. His wife suspects another woman and another family in another town, but it turns out that Harry can’t stay away from the sea for very long. Pastor Baskin makes him a deacon to anchor him to his wife and family through responsibility, but he definitely isn’t replacement pastor material.

Finally there is Deaconess Jennifer, a proud, 51-year-old virgin who – having been taken to task by a mother for slapping a child in Sunday school – takes the mother’s advice to get a child of her own to beat. She takes on the son of a wayward niece with too many children and indeed beats him often and thoroughly. So this sour woman is definitely not pastoral material.

A funeral, attended by Pastor Baskin’s wife (who has taken to attending any funeral she can), is conducted by a charismatic young preacher, Douglas Braithwaite. The reader learns the story of how the funeral came about and what happened in it, and what happened caused Mrs. Baskin to express the wish that the young Braithwaite should lead her funeral … at which point she dies suddenly and fully clothed.

When old Pastor Baskin hears the young Braithwaite conduct his wife’s funeral, he knows whom to select as his successor. But – and there is always a ‘but’ in these stories – “A single thing separated the two men, the old pastor and the new. That thing was love. For Old Pastor was a man who loved his wife, loved his village and loved almost everyone in his church – and this love made him see only good in the young Pastor Braithwaite.” Pastor Braithwaite, unfortunately, is not motivated by love, with consequences that rebound through the rest of the novel.

If you enjoy stories, if you enjoy wonderful narrative technique, you’ll enjoy this book.

[Peta · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and entertaining story--what my review here->https://youtu.be/V6COb3RgkUc

[LannaInTheLibrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

If its a sign of great writing that you can't get enough of their work, the fact that I've bought Miller's three novels in as many months speaks for itself.

Like Augustown, The Same Earth explores the history of rural Watersgate in Jamaica through the lives of its villagers and their interactions with each other and the outside world.

Although there are a lot of heavy topics thoughout the novel, including religion, homophobia and immigration, there is a lyrical quality to the writing and enough anecdotes to lighten it.

I've seen a lot of people comment on the disjointedness of the stories, but my favorite thing about Miller's work so far is his ability to craft seemingly unrelated stories and then bring them together seamlessly at the end. Absolutely a must read.

[Becky Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest, I did not much care for this book overall. I thought it would be a quick read, as it’s only around 230 pages, but this is the longest it’s ever taken me to get through a book club pick. Throughout the first 50 pages, I wondered if the book would even develop a plot. I thought perhaps it was a collection of short stories, but this book really didn’t fit that description either. Also, I thought the ending was a bit too anti-climatic, given the suspense that had built up in the last 100 pages.

Read the rest of my review here: http://beckyajohnson.net/2011/02/27/t...

[Joan Osborne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the humor, the way it joined the stories of the people and the flow of the book. It has real world evangelical Caribbean style theories. It's a laugh out loud book

[Suzanna (TheMillennialJAReads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forever Preaching the Gospel of Kei Miller 🤣🥰


I cannot count the amount of times this book had me giggling in public, grinning at the characters antics and at the sheer brilliance of the author. For now this is last piece of fiction I have to read from Kei Miller and I've held it close to my chest for so long, brooding over the fact, thinking I should wait until he publishes a next one or at least until I get my hands on a copy of Fear of Stones to read it. The good news is that I recently got a copy of his first essay collection so I'll hold that close. I know literature is meant to be read, not rationed.


I'm tempted to jump right down the rabbit hole of how Miller writes about the church but if you've read his books you know what I mean. Once there is a church and a Jamaican congregation it's a recipe for delicious- but not far-fetched- disaster. I suppose the crux of stories like this is to show that the foundations of the institutions that are supposed to spiritually guide us are deeply corrupt and divisive in our societies. Leading the whole flock astray. In the village of Watersgate, the contention overflowed rivers and lit fires (literally & figuratively).


I'm going to go over a few of the things I admire about this story:


I admire the way the pitfalls of immigration and the reality of returning are handled here.


"Inside almost every immigrant there are two impulses- the impulse to shout, and the impulse to be silent. The second is by far the stronger impulse, for at some point every day, the immigrant is afraid of speaking. She is afraid that the sound of her voice will be a loud banner confirming to everyone else her deep fear that she does not belong. Ironically, the impulse to shout comes from the same reason, for the immigrant will want to hear in her voice proof that she belongs somewhere else, the melodious evidence of a nation that accepts her."


"There is no such thing as return. We leave one place. We arrive at another. But the person who arrives is never the person who left. We grow. We change. There is no space waiting for us. Only memory."


The truth is that many of us- like Imelda- don't understand that England (also read America) is on the same earth until we experience it for ourselves.


I also admired how water is employed as a device, it moved, swelled and settled with characters emotions; amplifying our understanding of the characters. With the recent debates in Jamaican media about whether those who migrate are cowards or selfish, they'd probably love a character like Harry who traveled, worked on and yearned for the ocean. Harry never stepped foot on any other soil but Jamaica's. Harry isn't a main character (is anyone in this book really anyway?) but his mother's intense fear for compared to his intense love for the ocean fascinated me. How her fear led to his love... fascinating! How the waters from the flood finally receded with Imelda's release.... How the very items that caused the tension to overflow were revealed in that... fascinating!


"There is a kind of love so intense it will cause men to kill dragons, to risk their lives on the edge of precipices. To wage war. But there is a kind of love, even more intense, that will cause a man to do absolutely nothing. It will sit on his shoulders like twenty sacks of bricks, and render him utterly immobile."


You know how doll collectors have those special glass cabinets they keep their prized collection in, safe from the dust and general environs of their home. My grandaunt used to have a huge one with what looked like a hundred dolls to me, I used to stand there admiring and fantasizing about what it would be like to snatch at least one of them (and writing on their faces😈). I'd probably create one of those for my favourite books, especially my Kei Miller collection and when my grandchildren admire them I tell them about the stories (those rugrats will have to get their own copies tho😂 I'll buy them).

[Ape · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such an entertaining and involving read, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get around to reading it (I've had this book sat waiting for two years!). I don't know whether the cover didn't appeal enough to get me to pick it up, or what, but anyway, it is read now. Mostly set in Watersgate, Jamaica, this is mainly about Imelda (who is such a cool woman) but also about the various characters and local happenings in the village. It's like being sucked into their history and community and living it for a couple of days whilst you read the story. Imelda is the only daughter of schoolteacher Sarah and husband Desmond, who goes to England for a few years in the 70s, shares a house with a bolschy but charming Jamaican Purletta, gets herself a law degree (or at least almost, I'm not sure if she got the final diploma before having to head home due to her mother's death) and ends up back in her home village. Religion has a big role to play in this place, and as with religion, there are always people there to abuse it because of their own insecurities, so it leads to hate all so easily in the name of God. After the "theft" of 3 pants, Imelda suggests setting up a neighbour watch, which everyone thinks is a good idea until the pastor, jealous of the idea and attention, decrees that Imelda is being bad, replacing God with herself - because it is God who watches over us, not Imelda. That night the river swells and floods Imelda's house, so she leaves the village. But comes back a few months later, posessed by God it seems, and bringing God back to the village where they are preparing to burn the homosexual man's house. It kind of ends openly - we don't know if she saved the man, if people calmed down and stopped hating, or if Imelda and Joseph ever spoke again.

So the ending was a little so-so; but other than that I loved the writing, the characters, the overall plot, along with the little anecdotes about the characters in the village.

[Bukola Akinyemi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heavily character driven novel set in the small village of Watersgate, Jamaica.

‘Imelda Agnes Richardson learned something important on the morning if 29 September 1983: she found out that things could change overnight. On that morning she walked out of Watersgate, a single suitcase dragging behind her …’

The book starts with Imelda leaving Watersgate but she did return at a later date. We go back in time to learn that when Imelda was born, her father refused to bury her umbilical cord in the land, refused to tether her to the land even though this was what was done for every new born in the village.

Imelda travels to England and discovers that “Inside almost every immigrant there are two impulses - the impulse to shout, and the impulse to be silent. The second is by far the stronger impulse, for at some point almost every day, the immigrant is afraid of speaking. She is afraid that the sound of her voice will be a loud banner confirming to everyone else her deep fear that she does not belong. Ironically, the impulse to shout comes from the same reason, for the immigrant will want to hear in her voice proof that she belongs somewhere else, the melodious evidence of a nation that accepts her.”

We read about many other different characters and through them explore themes like identity and belonging, religion and spirituality, community living, race and colourism.

The writing style is brilliant, funny and engaging. Kei Miller uses Bible stories and myths in the mix. This is one to enjoy over and over again.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kei Miller read poetry at the 2008 Calabash International Literary Festival in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica where I heard him for the first time. He's incredible. I am determined to read everything he's ever written. "The Same Earth" is Miller's only novel as far as I know. It's character driven and depicts the lives of a handful of people in a small community in St. Mary, Jamaica. The narrative, which is mostly composed of vignettes, follows the events which unfold in the small village as a pentacostal ferver sweeps the region. It also investigates rural attitudes towards homosexuality and the complicated relationship between urban v. rural, rich v. poor, U.K. v. Jamaica, and Christianity v. Kumina/Rastafari. The book ends simultaneously with disaster and triumph.

[Kizzy-ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing takes you back to the islands like a well written prose! A little village much like those from an era passed where gossipers and religious fanatics fester. Nothing else for them to do with their island time but spread lies and preach hate. The mystical vibe the island folklore made me remember much of my time growing up on an island. Even though I thought the ending was a bit anticlimactic I enjoyed the nostalgia....

[Zara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Combolo

I’m a fan of Kei’s work. Normally I would have been put off by the style of storytelling but was actually intrigued. My only complaint is that there were too many characters that didn’t contribute to the plot. The style of writing was epic with the clarity it provoked, it more like watching a narrated scene. You could see the sights and hear the sounds. It was Kei’s first work, the beginning of a more fluid and cohesive writing style.

[Evie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. This is an intricately woven tale of the lives of the people of Watergate, a fictional village in St. Mary, Jamaica. It is a story of love and discovery and self-discovery. Kei Miller has a good ear for the language of the people.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. Colorful with fascinating characters.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Looking forward to reading the next book.

[Anjeli Crisanto · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the nonlinear narrative. I am still trying to decipher what happened at the end though. But then I guess that's what makes it the kind of book that sticks with you.

[Gwyneth Davidson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great contemporary storytelling baased in Jamaica.

[William Freeman · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very patchy read which jumped around the place - some of the little side stories entertaining dreadful ending never helps a book

[Jen D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Minus one star for the abrupt ending. Why do authors think this makes them look clever? Needs at least one more chapter!

[Jada · Rating 4 out of 5]

it would be an easy five stars if the ending wasnt so mid
i liked the witty lines and writing style, reminded me of so many other authors at once but better since it was much more relatable

[Shans Book Space · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m convinced: Kei Miller can do no wrong. This was a quality read!

[Alleaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jamaica ja Inglismaa. Aga tegelikult ikkagi ainult Jamaica. Kirju seltskond, igas mõtte. Huvitavalt üles ehitatud. Täis müstikat ja inimlikkust, nii head kui halba. Raamat ei millestki ja kõigest, midagi nagu ei toimuks, aga elu keeb.
Väga ilusa keelega kirjutatud. Täis murrakuid. Ja murre on oluline osa tegelaste identideedist:
No doubt Purletta's mother also wanted her daughter to come back cultivated English woman. But Purletta did the opposite. In the land of the BBC she suddenly abandoned her BBc accent. Away from Jamaica, she learned to talk Jamaican. She braided her hair close to her scalp and thereafter gave to every possible stereotype, whether negative or positive. She became loud and colourful. Learned to laugh at her gut, clapping her hands, leaning over and placing the palms of her hands on her thighs, shouting woooooooiiii. She became fat and started to walk a kind of walk that was all hips. She got a gold tooth. Then she transformed herself into the kind of person who, as they said in Jamaica, any pan knock she was there!

Lisaks on seal üks tegelane, kes ainult korraks räägib iseendada, muidu võib vahetada murdeid nagu ülikondi. Kuid tema puhul isegi pole murded niivõrd olulised kui just sõnad:
When he was younger, he hardly ever pronounced the words correctly or used them accurately but even when he was older he was never interested in the music of words but rather the hoarding of them. His logic was simple: everything he would ever really know in his world was contained in some dictionary or other. The more words you possessed the smarter you were; the more dictionaries you owned, the more knowledge you had.

Siis on nii siin kui sealpool ka selliseid kitsarinnalisi tegelasi nagu näiteks see britt:
Mrs. Mildred Farquason had spent her working life as a member of the auxiliary staff of British Railroad, humbly cleaning train stations around Manchester. Now that she was retired and living off government funds, she felt indebted to the system - to a a country that made you work when you should work, but allowed you to rest when it was time to rest. She thought that a life such privilege was uniquely British. As an old woman, she had, of course, developed notions of what was appropriate and what was not. But what was appropriate was invariably British, and there was nothing appropriate about her neighbour.
Aga muidugi, igalühel omad silmaklapid.

He never took the opportunity, as every other sailor did, at least to walk on all that foreign soil, to experience the culture, albeit fleetingly. It was all the same to him. All of it - the same earth.

Olin millegipärast just need lõigud märgistanud. Nüüd tagantjärele vaadates, iseloomustab iga lõik erinevat inimtüüpi selles raamatus.

[Andrea Glasse · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was such a great feeling to read a book about a long forgotten time in your history and it even greater when it’s written so well. Kei Miller brought his readers back to the time when the local rural church was a part of our every day lives, Kingston and England were places that country people go to make good or come back in disgrace and before the invention of the internet ,the local gossip feed your soul . The Same Earth tells the story of the day to day happenings in the fictional town, Watersgate , in rural Jamaica where water seems to be running theme throughout lives of the community;from the fear of the ocean that prevented one person from migrating to England with her husband ;to love of water that prevented another character from staying in one place , and eventually the hurricane that destroyed the home of another character sending her running out of town.

A coupe of years before Dance Hall, gold teeth and revealing clothing occupied the lives of young people , the Revered Braithwaite and his band of evangelical followers weaponized the word of the Lord to control and congregants. Miller cleverly weaved the story with small vignettes of the lives of various members of the congregation whose good intentions does not alway benefit the community or the individual. There were the Richardsons, whose only child , Imelda, returned from England after almost completing her legal studies only to be met by community believing she became a know it all . Deaconess Jenifer whose version of sparing the rod and spoiling the child takes on a whole new meaning when she adopted her niece’s son. Let us not forget the eccentric man that lived in the big house on the hill with dubious connections to the parish constable.

This novel reads like an excerpt from my favorite soap opera with plenty of action to keep me on my toes . Cudos to Miller for leaning into his community and bringing out the best and worst in mankind. This is my second book by this author and I am looking forward to forward to more. This was a quick and enjoyable book

[Laura Machado · Rating 5 out of 5]

She reached into the inside pocket of her jacket. There was a fistful of dirt there. The morning before leaving Watersgate she had bent down in the yard and closed her fingers around the soft earth. It was this same earth she was touching now, for comfort, for balance.

This book moved me. Not only because the writing is on point, but because the narrative was so original and cool. Equal measures funny, heartbreaking, full of life, full of hope.

Books like this shape my soul, make me thankful and eager to discover all that is out there.

I am left wistful and thirsty for more courageous storytelling - the type that describes tastes, colours, seasons as eloquently as feelings, stigmas, hopes & craziness.

[happilynappyme · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third novel I’ve read by Kai Miller , and it might be my most favorite. This book is set in a small town , outside of Kingston, from the 50s through the 80s. This isn’t quite a book of short stories but more of a novel written through vignettes. Miller has a way of writing about the lives of ordinary Jamaicans that makes you want to jump in the book , sit on their verandas and keep the stories going. His use of religion , sexuality , education , class , and culture in this book unpacks the complexities of life in a post-colonial Jamaica end England. It makes me think about the decisions my family made on that small island , why some have never left , why some go back , why some never come back.

[Jayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

A story about the confusion of being an immigrant and returning home, finding you do not really fit in either place. A story about prejudice and the damage that can be done by overzealous, small minded people.
Comprised of a series of vignettes about the various inhabitants of a small village in Jamaica woven through the story of Imelda, it is full of colourful characters and subtle humour. I particularly enjoyed the chapter titles, such as "The Silly Things People Told Imelda About England" and "The Silly Thing England Assumed About Her Colonial Subjects".
Ultimately the ending was very abrupt and somewhat unsatisfactory, but still an interesting read.