Augustown: A Novel

PEN OPEN BOOK AWARD FINALIST ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Slate Publishers Weekly Kirkus Reviews Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Ma Taffy may be blind but she sees everything. So when her great-nephew Kaia comes home from school in tears, what she senses sends a deep fear running through her. A teacher has cut off Kaias dreadlocksa violation of the familys Rastafari beliefsand this single impulsive action will have ramifications that stretch throughout the entire community. Kaias story brings back memories from Ma Taffys youth, including the legend of the flying preacherman and his ties to the history of Jamaican oppression and resistanceall of which will reverberate forward to the present and change Augustown forever. Vividly bringing to life Jamaica in the 1980s, Augustown follows one familys struggle to rise above the brutal vicissitudes of history, race, class, collective memory, violence, and myth.