Suite as Sugar (Uncommon Machines/Dundrun Press, April 2023) is a brand new novel by Camille Hernández-Ramdwar.
Ifeona Fulani (creator of Ten Days in Jamaica) writes, “Whether or not in Trinidad, Canada or Cuba the characters in these tales inhabit the margins of their societies, some searching for simpler methods to become profitable, refusing to even attempt to be a part of a system that doesn’t need them, whereas others battle for significance and survival in brutal environments. Within the 5 vignettes that give the gathering its title, Suite as Sugar, the themes that join the tales within the assortment converge in a strong, resonant climax. Camille Hernández-Ramdwar is a proficient storyteller with a present for acute social statement and a transparent eye for cultural contrasts.”
Description: Suite as Sugar is a sworn statement to the unseen forces, at all times vigilant, ever prepared, imbuing the characters on this assortment with each resilience and trauma.
From Winnipeg winterscapes to Toronto’s condominium tradition, from Havana’s haunted streets to Trinidad’s calamitous environs, the tales in Suite as Sugar are permeated with the violence of colonial histories, private and intimate, reflecting legacies of abandonment and loss. The veil between the dwelling and the useless is obscured, chaos turns into panacea, and characters take drastic measures into their very own arms.
Survivors of every kind search technique and solace: a bunch of homeless individuals arrange an occupation of vacant condos, a brand new resident to a disturbing neighbourhood tries to make sense of insanity, a canine investigates the sudden disappearance of his proprietor. The 5 intertwined vignettes within the title story are set in a Caribbean nation the place the spectre of the sugar plantation haunts everybody. Tying this assortment collectively is the informal brutality of our on a regular basis lives, whether or not seen by way of the eyes of animal, spirit, or human being.
Camille Hernández-Ramdwar is a multi-racial, multicultural, multilingual, and transnational author and scholar. The veil between the corporeal and the incorporeal may be very skinny in her work, which explores the seek for belonging; the collective violences of neo-colonialism, poverty, racism, sexism, and different injustices; and the necessary interrelationship between matter and spirit. She divides her time between Toronto and Trinidad and Tobago.
For extra info, see https://www.dundurn.com/books_/t22117/a9781459750715-suite-as-sugar