Coming soon: Ever Since We Small by Celeste Mohammed
- Colour Editorial
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
NEW BOOK
An intricately woven tapestry of stories where survival, resilience and self-discovery are passed down through generations of an Indo-Trinidadian family
“Ever Since We Small is a book of great candour and compassion written by a storyteller in whose skilful hands the tragic experiences of a Trinidadian family become lessons in love, life and grace. Mohammed weaves a compelling saga in lyrical and luminous prose, replete with the colour and cadence of the Caribbean. I couldn’t put it down.”
Cherie Jones, author of How the One-Arm Sister Sweeps Her House
“Ever Since We Small’ is a rich and captivating novel-in-stories, with beguiling characters and an emotional pull that made me want to swallow the book whole. Celeste Mohamed is a wise and consummate storyteller.”
Jendella Benson, author of Hope & Glory and All That We've Got
Celeste Mohammed's second novel-in-stories, Ever Since We Small, is a family saga which covers a sweeping landscape from the days of the British Raj in India, to multicultural modern Trinidad. Written in a blend of Standard English and several flavours of Trinidad kriol, the book follows the bloodline of a young woman, Jayanti, after her decision to become a girmitiya, an indentured labourer in the Caribbean.
Jayanti's grandson, Lall Gopaul, seeks to escape the rural village where he was born, but becomes seduced and corrupted by urban life. His son, Shiva, is forced to take a child-bride, Salma, but never recovers from the guilt. Heartache follows for their three children - Anand, Nadya and Abby - who must each find a way to accept and yet move past their parents' failed example.
Along the journey of these ten interconnected stories, the alchemy necessary to turn the Gopauls' inheritance of pain into a "generation of gold" requires intervention by the living and dead, the "real" and the mythical, the mundane and the magical, the secular and the sacred.
Ever Since We Small by Celeste Mohammed is out in hardback on 16 October, published by Jacaranda Books.
About Celeste Mohammed
Celeste Mohammed has been a lawyer since 2001 but she has been telling stories all her life. A native of Trinidad and Tobago, in 2016, she graduated from Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, with an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction). Celeste's goal is to dispel all myths about island-life and island-people, and to showcase the musicality and resonance of Trinidadian creole (kriol). Her work has appeared in The New England Review, Litmag, Epiphany, The Rumpus, among other places. She is the recipient of a 2018 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She was also awarded the 2019 Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction, and the 2017 John D Gardner Memorial Prize for Fiction.