Erna Brodber is one of the most important writers of the generation that came of age in the transitional period between colonialism and independence in the English-speaking Caribbean. She is also one of a growing number of Caribbean women writers whose work has begun to receive critical recognition since the 1980s. Because of her innovative use of language and form, her novels have been compared to the works of well-known, established writers such as George Lamming and Wilson Harris. She brings her knowledge and insight as a social scientist and formidable talent as a creative writer to representations of the conflicts faced by Caribbean people, especially women, in societies where the legacy of slavery and colonialism has resulted in internalized forms of oppression that block visions of future transformation and possibilities.

Brodber spent her earliest years in the rural community of Woodside, St. Mary parish, Jamaica, where she...