Hungry Ghosts: A BBC 2 Between the Covers Book Club Pick

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Before disappearing, he went to the shed (where Marlee was listening) and had a conversation with his mother (Dalton believes his deceased mother is trapped inside a picture), where he spoke of a proper heir. What luscious, troubling, shimmering cloth Hosein has spun… Hungry Ghosts reads like a Greek tragedy relocated to a gothic Caribbean setting worthy of Jean Rhys — a story of cursed families and inherited vengeance, inexplicable horrors and impossible dreams and a country haunted, as Hosein reminds us, by the ghosts of the indentured…Hosein gives us no easy answers in this sumptuous, brilliantly written novel. It’s rare that a title sums up a book as succinctly as Hungry Ghosts, Trinidadian writer Kevin Jared Hosein’s magnificent first novel for adults. A deftly written novel with evocative, lyrical prose, vivid characterisation and a heartbreaking plot.

There was still movement within the dog’s thorax. Her breathing forced and irregular as if she were in her last throes of life. Tarak knelt beside her, desperate as a votary ready to self-flagellate. From an unforgettable new voice in Caribbean literature, a sweeping story of two families colliding in 1940s Trinidad--and a chilling mystery that shows how interconnected their lives truly are Tarak stood at the other end of the yard, two flour bags in hand. His feet also wrapped in flour bags, tied with twine above the ankles. Mikey scurried to the hill. When he got to the top, he looked like he was about to yell something, but instead stole away from sight, the four boys now focused on keeping the dog from death.scattered like half-buried bones across the plain, strewn from their colonial corpse. In their marrow, the ghosts of the indentured. And the offspring of those ghosts."

Tarak turned to the dog. ‘He probably aint like thinkin bout it. Same way I aint like thinkin bout it.’ That is, until an unexpected job opportunity brings them away from their life of destitution. Hans works as a farmhand for Dalton Changoor, a mystery man who leads a life of luxury on a hill above Bell Village. When Dalton goes missing, his beautiful and equally mysterious wife Marlee asks Hans to move in with her to guard the mansion. This transgression of class boundaries sets the stage for Hosein’s rumination on intimacy and oppression in which the Saroops and the Changoors are ensnared in a story of betrayal, trauma, and longing. Atmospheric, immersive, un-put-down-able, truly impressive storytelling from a Caribbean voice you will want to hear from again…and again….So the novel opens with this divine call. This novel wasn’t an easy write and it’s not going to be an easy read—you may be tempted to leave many times. Because the world of Hungry Ghosts is hell. Awashed in bodies and blood. And you are about to walk side by side with its inhabitants: Krishna, Hansraj, Shweta, Marlee, Rustam, Rudra, Tarak, Niala, White Lady, and the others. Thanks for championing Hungry Ghosts, David, Mohamed, Wendy, Gumble, Paul and everyone else too! I think you all believed in it for the Booker more than I did (my agent is probably as upset as Gumble -- for he is a good agent!) Living and writing from a country that barely supports literature and has almost no real bookshops and only one substantial library, even being predicted for the longlist is a long way to be. I'm sorry Derek missed out as well. Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein review — cursed families and killer cherries". The Times. 3 February 2023. Kevin Jared Hosein (born 1986) is a Caribbean novelist and short-story writer from Trinidad and Tobago. [1] [2] He is known for winning the 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize with his story "Passage". [1] He also won the regional (Caribbean) section of the prize in 2015, with "The King of Settlement 4". [3] A] thorny literary thriller...Hosein imbues the proceedings with the swelter of subtropical noir...Patient readers will find plenty of rewards in this complex tale.