Palace of the Peacock
About the book
A crew’s expedition into the Guyanese jungle becomes a poetic journey between life and death.
Americas · A READING GUIDE
Guyana
Harris offers an experimental journey into the interior. Mittelholzer portrays rural Guyana and colonial haunting, while Kempadoo recalls growing up in a multiracial society. Melville joins history with Indigenous myths and family memory. D’Aguiar, raised in Guyana, extends the selection to enslavement and memory on an American plantation.
WHERE TO START
- Palace of the PeacockWilson Harris
- My Bones and My FluteEdgar Mittelholzer
- Buxton SpiceOonya Kempadoo
Books to begin with
An editorial selection · not rankedNo matches. Try another language or search term.
My Bones and My Flute
About the book
A journey into Guyana’s interior becomes a ghost story haunted by the colonial past.
Corentyne Thunder
About the book
An Indian migrant family’s life in rural Guyana exposes tensions of race, property and social ambition.
Buxton Spice
About the book
A girl named Lula grows up in a multiracial family in a 1970s Guyanese village.
The Ventriloquist’s Tale
About the book
Family histories and Indigenous myths intertwine with Guyana’s colonial history.
The Longest Memory
About the book
A polyphonic story of an enslaved family on a Virginia plantation examines love, violence and memory.
Bloodlines
About the book
A narrative poem about a white man and an enslaved woman and the legacies of violence.
Mama Dot
About the book
The debut poetry collection by the British-Guyanese author.
Context and sources
Sources on authors and their connections to this country. Specific edition details appear beside each book. Polish and English originals are not labelled as translations.
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