The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts

Soraya Palmer

A Libreria Book of the Year 2023

‘A beautiful ode to the power of storytelling, this novel is steeped in the folklore of the Caribbean and weaves a powerful narrative of identity, trauma, resilience and hope’ Eleanor Shearer, author of River Sing Me Home

Zora and Sasha Porter don’t know much of their Jamaican father Nigel’s and Trinidadian mother Beatrice’s pasts. What they do know: the mythic stories of Nigel’s flight to America on the string of a purple balloon, the violent histories in Beatrice’s book of Anansi Stories, that Nigel had a brother, once, and that Beatrice has a tangle of silvery scars on her back.

With their parents’ marriage falling apart, the pair navigate their own relationships and secrets – Zora has impure thoughts about a jock, and Sasha drinks cheap beer with a girl who binds her chest.

A celebration of the power of stories, this startling debut presents a tale of slippery contradictions and an examination of the limits of resilience.