Caryl Phillips

A "story of orphans and outcasts, haunted by the past and fighting to liberate themselves from it. At its center is Monica Johnson--cut off from her parents after falling in love with a foreigner--and her bitter struggle to raise her sons in the shadow of the wild moors of the north of England. Phillips intertwines her modern narrative with the childhood of one of literature's most enigmatic lost boys as he ... conjures young Heathcliff, the antihero...

The story of Ganesh, a young, aspiring author whose unexpected talents as a healer bring him local fame and enable him to realize his ambitions as a writer. But he also realizes his limitations when his reputation as the legendary "mystic masseur" propels him to national renown and draws him far from his roots and his true self. Set amidst the large and prosperous Indian community in mid-20th century Trinidad.