The Autobiography of My Mother John McGahern and a desperation straight out

and a desperation straight out of Nathaniel West—a city in which we may glimpse our own future mirrored with terrifying clarity

Henry James

She watches a kestrel hunting

"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there

The Autobiography of My Mother John McGahern and a desperation straight out"My mother died at the moment I was born, and so for my whole life there was nothing standing between myself and eternity," writes Jamaica Kincaid in this disturbing, compelling novel set on the island of Dominica. Born to a doomed Carib woman and a Scottish African policeman of increasing swagger and wealth, narrator Xuela spends a lifetime unanchored by family or love. She disdains the web of small and big lies that link others, allowing only