Paule Marshall Knihy

Avey Johnson, a middle-class widow, embarks on a transformative journey during a Caribbean cruise, spurred by a troubling dream. Leaving her friends behind, she seeks to reconnect with her roots and the culture she has distanced herself from. This unexpected adventure leads her to confront her past and rediscover her identity. Originally published in 1983 and awarded the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award, this new hardcover edition is part of McSweeney's Of the Diaspora series, highlighting its enduring significance.

Set against the backdrop of the Depression and World War II in Brooklyn, the story follows Selina Boyce, a young woman navigating her identity amid her immigrant family's contrasting aspirations. Her mother is determined to secure a better future through education and homeownership, while her father yearns for their homeland in Barbados. As Selina confronts the challenges of racism and poverty, she embarks on a journey of self-discovery, making this a poignant coming-of-age narrative and a compelling depiction of the quest for the American Dream.

The chosen place is Bourneville, a remote, devastated part of a Carribean island; the timeless people are its inhabitants -- black, poor, inextricably linked to their past enslavement. The advance team for an ambitious American research project arrives, and the tense ambivalent relationships that evolve -- between natives and foreigners, blacks and whites, haves and have-nots -- keenly dramatize the vicissitudes of power.

This collection of short works illustrates the growth of a remarkable writer. Opening the volume is the much-acclaimed autobiographical essay, “From the Poets in the Kitchen,” which pays homage to the hard-working, storytelling West Indian women who serve as her muses—women who fought back against oppression and invisibility using the only weapon at their command: the spoken word. Such women appear in her luminous short stories, which travel from Brooklyn to Barbados and back again.

From one of America's most distinguished black novelists, the acclaimed bestseller that won the 1991 Booklist Award for Best Adult Fiction. Ursa is a well-educated, good-hearted, hard-working young black woman living in New York--a woman seeking to come to terms with herself, her life, and her parents back home in the West Indies.

Ein Loblied für die Witwe - bk1006; Rowohlt Verlag; Paule Marshall; pocket_book; 1986