Secrets We Kept: Three Women of Trinidad

Nonfiction, History, Americas, Caribbean & West Indies, Biography & Memoir
Cover of the book Secrets We Kept: Three Women of Trinidad by Krystal A. Sital, W. W. Norton & Company
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Krystal A. Sital ISBN: 9780393609271
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Publication: February 20, 2018
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company Language: English
Author: Krystal A. Sital
ISBN: 9780393609271
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publication: February 20, 2018
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English

An eloquent new Caribbean literary voice reveals the hidden trauma and fierce resilience of one Trinidadian family.

There, in a lush landscape of fire-petaled immortelle trees and vast plantations of coffee and cocoa, where the three hills along the southern coast act as guardians against hurricanes, Krystal A. Sital grew up idolizing her grandfather, a wealthy Hindu landowner. Years later, to escape crime and economic stagnation on the island, the family resettled in New Jersey, where Krystal’s mother works as a nanny, and the warmth of Trinidad seems a pretty yet distant memory. But when her grandfather lapses into a coma after a fall at home, the women he has terrorized for decades begin to speak, and a brutal past comes to light.

In the lyrical patois of her mother and grandmother, Krystal learns the long-held secrets of their family’s past, and what it took for her foremothers to survive and find strength in themselves. The relief of sharing their stories draws the three women closer, the music of their voices and care for one another easing the pain of memory.

Violence, a rigid ethnic and racial caste system, and a tolerance of domestic abuse—the harsh legacies of plantation slavery—permeate the history of Trinidad. On the island’s plantations, in its growing cities, and in the family’s new home in America, Secrets We Kept tells a story of ambition and cruelty, endurance and love, and most of all, the bonds among women and between generations that help them find peace with the past.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

An eloquent new Caribbean literary voice reveals the hidden trauma and fierce resilience of one Trinidadian family.

There, in a lush landscape of fire-petaled immortelle trees and vast plantations of coffee and cocoa, where the three hills along the southern coast act as guardians against hurricanes, Krystal A. Sital grew up idolizing her grandfather, a wealthy Hindu landowner. Years later, to escape crime and economic stagnation on the island, the family resettled in New Jersey, where Krystal’s mother works as a nanny, and the warmth of Trinidad seems a pretty yet distant memory. But when her grandfather lapses into a coma after a fall at home, the women he has terrorized for decades begin to speak, and a brutal past comes to light.

In the lyrical patois of her mother and grandmother, Krystal learns the long-held secrets of their family’s past, and what it took for her foremothers to survive and find strength in themselves. The relief of sharing their stories draws the three women closer, the music of their voices and care for one another easing the pain of memory.

Violence, a rigid ethnic and racial caste system, and a tolerance of domestic abuse—the harsh legacies of plantation slavery—permeate the history of Trinidad. On the island’s plantations, in its growing cities, and in the family’s new home in America, Secrets We Kept tells a story of ambition and cruelty, endurance and love, and most of all, the bonds among women and between generations that help them find peace with the past.

More books from W. W. Norton & Company

Cover of the book Letters to a Young Poet by Krystal A. Sital
Cover of the book The Great Equations: Breakthroughs in Science from Pythagoras to Heisenberg by Krystal A. Sital
Cover of the book The Red Man's Bones: George Catlin, Artist and Showman by Krystal A. Sital
Cover of the book Under the Fifth Sun: A Novel of Pancho Villa by Krystal A. Sital
Cover of the book Nobody's Son: A Memoir by Krystal A. Sital
Cover of the book Make Me a Mother: A Memoir by Krystal A. Sital
Cover of the book More News Tomorrow: A Novel by Krystal A. Sital
Cover of the book The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google by Krystal A. Sital
Cover of the book The Grimm Reader: The Classic Tales of the Brothers Grimm by Krystal A. Sital
Cover of the book Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief by Krystal A. Sital
Cover of the book The 9/11 Commission Report: The Attack from Planning to Aftermath (Authorized Text, Shorter Edition) by Krystal A. Sital
Cover of the book Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory: The Emergence of Polyvagal-Informed Therapies (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology) by Krystal A. Sital
Cover of the book The Insanity Offense: How America's Failure to Treat the Seriously Mentally Ill Endangers Its Citizens by Krystal A. Sital
Cover of the book Arts of the Possible: Essays and Conversations by Krystal A. Sital
Cover of the book Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose by Krystal A. Sital
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy