THE BOOK OF NIGHT WOMEN

Robin Miles's calypso lilt gives listeners an immediate sense of this novel’s setting: an eighteenth-century Jamaican sugar plantation. Just as quickly we get a strong sense of the lyrical voice of the author as Miles's cadences play up the imagery and poignant dialogue that threads through the story. It doesn't take long before we realize we'll need the poetry to carry us through disturbing life of the story’s heroine, Lilith. A slave girl born with vivid green eyes, Lilith is not only beset by white owners, but isolated by fellow slaves who believe she possesses a dark power. The rawness of the author’s voice, periodic violence, and Lilith's quandaries about her place in the world create a tension that befits turbulent times before certain rebellion. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2009]