When George and Sabine Harwood arrived in Trinidad from England George instantly takes to their new life, but Sabine feels isolated, heat-fatigued, and ill at ease with the racial segregation and the imminent dawning of a new era. Her only solace is her growing fication with Eric Williams, the charismatic leader of Trinidad's new national party, to whom she pours out all her hopes and fears for the future in letters that she never brings herself to send. As the yeas progress, George and Sabine's marriage endures from better to worse. When George discovers Sabine's cache of letters, he realises just how many secrets she's kept from him - and he from her - over the decades. And he is seized by an urgent, desperate need to prove his love for her, with tragic consequences...

What a book! I liked reading it a lot even though it took me some pages to get used to style, language and - most of all as a non-native speaker - to the Trinidadian 'slang'.
This book reveals not only 50 years of George and Sabine's life but also of Trinidadian history which is always connected to the protagonist's (non-)ability to integrate to the new culture.

Off it goes to the one who chose this first sentence - enjoy!

The book has arrived. Thank you.

Looks like a fascinating book. I like books that follow characters over a long time span.

First sentence: "They took hm to the top of Paramin Hill".

Off on holiday tomorrow. Normally I do not take books of a big physical size on holiday as I backpack. However, this time I will be taking a 36 hour train journey from Guangzhou to Harbin so plenty of reading time. I will release it somewhere in Harbin.

It was a very long train journey, tus I had finished the book before I arrived in Harbin.

As the novel began in 2006 we knew how Sabines life was going to turn out; she was destined to never leave Trinidad. This did mean that when reading the story starting in 1956 we know her dream of leaving would never be fulfilled. It was sad to see have her so little control over her own life, yet really it was her own choice to stay. She was a contradictory character.


Being an expat I can relate to some of her experiences. e.g. I know that feeling of going to a super market and not recognising many of the things I can see.

Left in the reception area of the JinJiang Inn.

If you were lucky enough to find this book one day please journal it to say where you found it, and then what you thought of it.

When you have finished please release it. Keep its journey alive!