Light Falling on Bamboo by Lawrence Scott

Light Falling on Bamboo by Lawrence Scott

Trinidad, 1865. Michel Jean Cazabon returns home to be at his beloved mother's deathbed. Life on the island seems very different after the freedoms of post-Revolutionary Paris, where his paintings have hung in the Louvre. Despite the Emancipation Act, his childhood home is in the grip of colonial power, its people riven by the legacy of slavery. Michel Jean finds himself caught between the powerful and the dispossessed. As an artist, he enjoys the governor's patronage, painting for him the island's vistas and its women; as a Trinidadian he shares easy wisdom and nips of rum with the local boat-builders. But domestic tensions and haunting reminders of the past threaten his equanimity. His fiery half-sister, Josie - the daughter of a slave - still provokes in him a youthful passion; his flirtatious muse, Augusta, tempts him as he paints her 'for posterity'. Meanwhile, letters from his white, French wife and children remind him of their imminent arrival on the island. Caught in the sweep of history and his own intimate dramas, Michel Jean paints the figures in the landscape, the dappled light as it falls through the bamboo grove.

What a powerful writer he is - unfashionably leisured and completely self-confidentA Caribbean One Hundred Years of Solitude. It certainly won't just go away -- Fay Weldon
Rare and magical. The first of its kind. Wonderful evocative language; complete emotional range; a loving, touching insight into human and family relationships -- Sam Selvon
Impressively written work by a very gifted writer. Subtle but compelling, strange and intriguing fiction with its layers of incurable pathos -- Wilson Harris

Lawrence Scott was born on a sugarcane estate in Trinidad. After coming to England to train as a Benedictine monk, he studied at Oxford and became a teacher. He has since been active in the promotion of Caribbean literature, through New Beacon Books, Wasafiri and British universities. Three of his books have been listed for Commonwealth Writers' Prize. He divides his time between London and Port of Spain, Trinidad.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781906994396
ISBN 10	1906994390
Title	Light Falling on Bamboo
Author	Lawrence Scott
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Profile Books Ltd
Year published	2012-09-06
Number of pages	472
Prizes	Long-listed for OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature 2013 (UK), Long-listed for IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2014 (UK)
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.