Publisher Description
A major debut from an award-winning writer-- an epic family saga set against the magic and the rhythms of the Virgin Islands. In the early 1900s an important ship sinks into the Caribbean Sea, just as the Virgin Islands are transferred from Danish to American rule. Orphaned by the sunk vessel are two sisters and their half-brother, now faced with an uncertain identity and future. Each of them is unusually beautiful, and each is in possession of a particular magic that will either sink or save them. Chronicling three generations of an island family from 1916 to the 1970s, Land of Love and Drowning is a novel of love and magic, set against the emergence of Saint Thomas into the modern world. Wholly unique, with echoes of Toni Morrison, Gabriel Garcia MArquez, and the author' s own Caribbean family history, the story is told in a language and rhythm that evokes an entire world and way of life and love. Following the Bradshaw family through sixty years of fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, love affairs, curses, magical gifts, loyalties, births, deaths, and triumphs, Land of Love and Drowning is a gorgeous, vibrant debut by an exciting, prize-winning young writer.
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“Iin Tiphanie Yanique’s gorgeous debut, St.Thomas in the US Virgin Islands makes for a textured and fascinating protagonist…Yanique’s many artful touches—switched perspectives, deeply idiomatic dialogue, island folklore, strokes of magical realism—are so arresting that it’s easy to overlook the mastery involved in intertwining the history of a place and the lives of two unforgettable women.”
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Entertainment Weekly
About Tiphanie Yanique
Tiphanie Yanique is a Caribbean fiction writer, poet and essayist, born in the US Virgin Islands. She is the author of the novel, Land of Love and Drowning, which garnered widespread critical acclaim. She is also the author of a collection of stories, How to Escape from a Leper Colony, which won her a listing as one of the National Book Foundation’s 5 under 35. She is a professor in the MFA program at the New School in New York City, where she is the 2015 recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award. She lives in New Rochelle, New York with her family.
About the Narrators
Cherise Boothe, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, has worked extensively in theater, film, television, and narration. She has appeared in numerous regional plays, as well as in television shows such as The Good Wife, Law & Order: SVU, and Gossip Girl. She holds an MFA in acting from New York University. She was a finalist in 2015 for the prestigious Audie Award for best multivoiced narration.
Korey Jackson, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, is an actor, known for his roles in the films 37, Life Itself, and Anesthesia. He earned his MFA in acting from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Rachel Leslie is an audiobook narrator whose readings include In the Midst of It All by Tiffany Warren, Saved and Single by Sheila Copeland, and Leonardo Da Vinci: Giants of Science by Kathleen Krull.
Neil Hellegers grew up in New Jersey and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a BA in theater arts and a minor in psychology before getting an MFA in acting from the Trinity Rep Conservatory in Providence, Rhode Island. He moved to New York City in 2003 and, since then, has made a career of theatrical performance, percussion, theater education, and audiobook narration. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.