“In these kaleidoscopic stories of Jamaica and its diaspora we hear many voices at once. All of them convince and sing. All of them shine.”—Zadie Smith An O: The Oprah Magazine “Top 15 Best of the Year” • A Well-Read Black Girl Pick Tenderness and cruelty, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and regret—Alexia Arthurs navigates these tensions to extraordinary effect in her debut collection about Jamaican immigrants and their families back home. Sweeping from close-knit island communities to the streets of New York City and midwestern university towns, these eleven stories form a portrait of a nation, a people, and a way of life. In “Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands,” an NYU student befriends a fellow Jamaican whose privileged West Coast upbringing has blinded her to the hard realities of race. In “Mash Up Love,” a twin’s chance sighting of his estranged brother—the prodigal son of the family—stirs up unresolved feelings of resentment. In “Bad Behavior,” a couple leave their wild teenage daughter with her grandmother in Jamaica, hoping the old ways will straighten her out. In “Mermaid River,” a Jamaican teenage boy is reunited with his mother in New York after eight years apart. In “The Ghost of Jia Yi,” a recently murdered student haunts a despairing Jamaican athlete recruited to an Iowa college. And in “Shirley from a Small Place,” a world-famous pop star retreats to her mother’s big new house in Jamaica, which still holds the power to restore something vital. Alexia Arthurs emerges in this vibrant, lyrical, intimate collection as one of fiction’s most dynamic and essential authors. Praise for How to Love a Jamaican “A sublime short-story collection from newcomer Alexia Arthurs that explores, through various characters, a specific strand of the immigrant experience.”—Entertainment Weekly “With its singular mix of psychological precision and sun-kissed lyricism, this dazzling debut marks the emergence of a knockout new voice.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “Gorgeous, tender, heartbreaking stories . . . Arthurs is a witty, perceptive, and generous writer, and this is a book that will last.”—Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties “Vivid and exciting . . . every story rings beautifully true.”—Marie Claire

Comedy thriller set in Jamaica, 1962. At the height of the Cold War, in the heart of the Caribbean, one small island is a hotbed of historical and political forces that will shape the future of the world. Out of many, one people, a nation and a hero are about to be born. With a backdrop of the most spectacular natural beauty on the planet, and a soundtrack of the most exhilarating music ever created, one man's mission to protect his family leads him into trouble with a deadly foe. From Kingston to Montego Bay, from Treasure Isle to Studio One, a unique society and culture is at stake. On the eve of independence, someone is trying to spoil the party. John Brown from Trenchtown returns home to an island bubbling over with celebration, contention, insurrection and...ska!

In Jamaica, Clarks are loved like no other brand. They are the island's ruling name in footwear -- the "champion shoes" -- and it has been that way for as long as anybody can remember. This book celebrates the rich history of Clarks in Jamaica, with a focus on the Jamaican reggae and dancehall musicians who have worn and sung about Clarks shoes through the years. Documenting the origins of the Clarks brand in 1825 through to the introduction of their shoes into Jamaica in the 1920s and the impact of styles such as the Desert Boot, Wallabee and Desert Trek on the island, Clarks in Jamaica explores how footwear made by a Quaker firm in the quiet English village of Street, Somerset became the "baddest" shoes in Jamaica and an essential part of the island's culture. Building on the success of the first release in 2011, this updated second edition includes new interviews, previously unseen photographs, insights into Jamaica's favourite styles of Clarks from former company employees, and an expanded chapter on Jamaican fashion detailing the histories of island fashion staples such as the mesh marina (string vest), Arrow shirt, knits ganzie and beaver hat. Beautifully presented and thoroughly researched, Clarks in Jamaica is a wonderful document of Clarks' deep roots in Jamaican culture, a fitting tribute to the rich cultural exchange that has taken place between Jamaica and the UK that will appeal as much to Jamaicaphiles and lovers of Clarks shoes as to musicologists, fashion stylists and cultural historians.

Catherine Duncan is down on her luck. Life is stressful enough for the hardworking single mom when she gets unexpectedly fired from her job. Right before Christmas. But her sister is there to cheer her up, with the gift of a vacation to Jamaica, to take her mind off all the stress. Enter Derek--tall, dark, handsome, and everything Cathy needs to refresh her weary spirits, and have some fun for the first time in forever. But Derek is not all that he seems. A businessman with an overbearing father, he ropes Cathy into a fake fiancée agreement that promises to end her financial troubles. Feeling skeptical, but desperate for the money, Cathy wonders if this sexy man will end up turning her Jamaican vacation into a perfect paradise, or a complete nightmare...

Born and raised on an island paradise, Akime knows that no amount of sun and sand can hide the hypocrisy, hatred, and danger that fill his days. As a gay man in Jamaica, hes skilled at hiding the truth from others. When he meets Nathan, an Adjunct Professor at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, he dares to believe that he has found the one person from whom he has nothing to hide. For one glorious year, Akime and Nathan live the dream together, even though they must keep their love hidden. They spend weekends on Jamaicas lush and more open north-eastern coast, but Nathan has dangerous secrets of his ownincluding an intensifying relationship with Nicole, an American woman. Without warning, Nathan leaves the island, and Akime, behind to start a new life with her in New York City. Devastated, Akime decides to follow Nathan to New York, where the former lovers are touched by tragedy. In a desperate moment, one lays dying of a gunshot, and the other must act upon his own mortality. Meanwhile, Nicole has questions of her own about Nathans history with Akime. Now only time will tell if the man left behind has any hope of happinessor whether the tortured ghosts of his past will haunt him forever.

It's opening game of the football season at Florida Field, and Monk DeVane, a former teammate of Zack Chasteen's, invites Zack and his girlfriend to a halftime party in one of the exclusive skyboxes. But they find chaos---there's a bomb under the chair of Darcy Whitehall, Monk Devane's boss and the rakish Jamaican owner of Libido, a chain of anything-goes Caribbean resorts. The bomb turns out to be a dud, but someone is putting the squeeze on Darcy Whitehall, and Monk DeVane enlists Zack to help protect his employer. When Zack arrives in Jamaica things quickly go to hell---more bombs (this time, for real), gnarly Jamaican politics, and the kinky diversions at Libido, where the prime spectator sport is watching guests frolic on the naked flume ride. As if that weren't enough, Zack's snooping around puts him in jeopardy with Freddie Arzghanian, king of the Caribbean money launderers. Suspenseful, laugh-out-loud funny, and with larger-than-life characters, Jamaica Me Dead is Bob Morris at his wicked best.

A pan-Caribbean anthology of original short stories culled from the very best entries to the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

A tale inspired by the 1976 attempted assassination of Bob Marley spans decades and continents to explore the experiences of journalists, drug dealers, killers, and ghosts against a backdrop of social and political turmoil.