In Trinidad during the 1940s the profound impacts of colonialism were waning. Society was split between families with generational wealth and those with nothing.
Hungry Ghosts follows two families. The Saroops, who are poor, and the Changoors, landowners who live in very grand style. When Dalton Changoor suddenly vanishes, his wife Marlee’s life is turned upside down by ransom notes. She asks Hans Saroop, one of her husband’s labourers, to guard the house while she waits for her secretive husband to return. But people are jealous of Hans’ role.
This novel teems with characters that can be difficult to keep track of, which can be distracting from the story. The reality of both families’ generational pain is compounded by personal wealth or poverty, the horrors of a colonial past and, more recently, the US occupation of the island during World War II. The characters encounter visceral attraction, feuding, jealousies and racism while clinging to their old beliefs and just trying to survive.
A clever book, but perhaps trying too hard to be so. It is partly a mystery, but somehow that is lost in the minutiae of the drama.
Hungry Ghosts provides a view of the Caribbean that people may not be familiar with. At times it’s not easy reading. It is beautiful in parts, with the bounty of the fertile land and the environment, the patter between characters and stories of domestic life.
Reviewed by Lesley West
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kevin Jared Hosein is a Caribbean novelist. He has also worked as a secondary school biology teacher for over a decade. He was named overall winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2018, and was the Caribbean regional winner in 2015. He has published two books: The Repenters and The Beast of Kukuyo. The latter received a CODE Burt Award for Caribbean Young Adult Literature, and both have been longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. His writings, fiction and non-fiction, have been published in numerous anthologies and outlets including Lightspeed Magazine, Moko, Wasafiri and adda. He lives in Trinidad and Tobago.
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