Novel
A Room on the Hill
Garth St. Omer · 1968
Synopsis
On an island turned in on itself and dominated by the Catholic Church, John Lestrade cannot get over the suicide of his friend Stephen, which he blames himself for not having prevented. He takes refuge in a room on a hill, an inner exile where he hopes to escape the mechanical life he leads, but his despair cuts him off from his friends. Then Ann Marie, whom his friend Derek has abandoned, dies in a car accident, and the Church refuses her a religious funeral.
Context
The novel came out in London from Faber and Faber in 1968, four years after the short story Syrop. It is set in Saint Lucia, whose masquerades, funeral processions and seaside rum shops it renders. Brief and spare, it portrays a lettered youth caught in the colonial straitjacket and in religious tradition. It was reissued in 2012 by Peepal Tree Press, in its series of modern Caribbean classics. It is not translated into French.
Who it is for
For discovering a discreet Saint Lucian novelist, a contemporary of Walcott, and the stifling of a small colonial island.
Prizes and reception
Published by a major London publisher, then returned to readers more than forty years later by a Caribbean publisher.
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