Molly is raised in the harsh surroundings of Accrington, Lancashire, during the years leading up to World War Two. Systematically abused by her father and his band of pals, becoming consummate in sex and hatred at an early age, she matures into a wounded and broken creature, half soothsayer, half madwoman: a creation to rival the fabulous beings of Guyanese myth. As her life story unfolds, we enter an absurdist narrative peopled with talking animals, demented prophets, shape-shifting ghosts, Amerindian asylum seekers and a Muslim walking stick. Raleigh's discovery of Guiana, the Suez Crisis, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, the 'clash of civilisations' - much here resonates with the impulses of the Third World canon, yet David Dabydeen's gentle insistence that only pity can cleanse away the crimes of history, and the magical transformations enacted by his jewelled and sumptuous prose, ensure the reader's bewitchment throughout this rich and strangely wrought, marvellous tale of human suffering and redemption. WINNER OF THE 2008 ANTHONY N. SABGA CARIBBEAN AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE (Arts & Letters) David Dabydeen was born in Guyana, read English at Cambridge, and is currently Professor of Literary Studies at the University of Warwick. He has published five novels and three books of poems, including A Harlot's Progress, Our Lady of Demerara and Turner. His work has been shortlisted for the James Tait Memorial Prize, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Dublin Impac Prize, and has received the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the Guyana Prize and the Raja Rao Prize.Please note that this is an eBook version of this title and can NOT be printed. For more information about eBooks, including how to download the software you'll need, see our FAQs page.