Hungry Ghosts

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein, read by Don Warrington.

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* A BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK FOR 2023 *
* WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2024 *

‘A shimmering slice of Trinidadian gothic’ THE TIMES
‘An astonishing novel’ BERNARDINE EVARISTO
‘Deeply impressive ’ HILARY MANTEL

The music was still playing when Dalton Changoor vanished into thin air...

On a hill overlooking Bell Village sits the Changoor farm, where Dalton and Marlee Changoor live in luxury unrecognisable to those who reside in the farm’s shadow. Down below is the barrack, a ramshackle building of wood and tin, divided into rooms occupied by whole families. Among these families are the Saroops – Hans, Shweta, and their son, Krishna, who live hard lives of backbreaking work, grinding poverty and devotion to faith.

When Dalton Changoor goes missing and Marlee’s safety is compromised, farmhand Hans is lured by the promise of a handsome stipend to move to the farm as watchman. But as the mystery of Dalton’s disappearance unfolds their lives become hellishly entwined, and the small community altered forever.

Hungry Ghosts is a mesmerising novel about violence, religion, family and class, rooted in the wild and pastoral landscape of 1940s colonial central Trinidad.

A 2023 highlight for: Financial Times * Guardian * Evening Standard * Daily Mail * BBC News

Critics Review

Immersive and beautifully written, it was impossible to put down
Independent
Magnificent . . . A tale in the Gothic tradition: think Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea or Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy . . . A superlative book that deserves to win prizes
i
Lush, lyrical . . . If you read it now, you’ll be able to brag about it when it’s on all the literary prize shortlists
Independent
The language is as lush, moody and thrilling as the landscape . . . Electrifying
New York Times Book Review
A barnstorming fable about the perils of upward mobility, set in the dog days of colonial rule in the author’s native Trinidad . . . Told with riveting verve, this is a terrific novel, pegged to national as well as domestic strife, peopled by flesh-and blood characters and plotted to keep us on tenterhooks about the story’s pole-axing finale
Daily Mail
Hungry Ghosts reads like a Greek tragedy relocated to a gothic Caribbean setting worthy of Jean Rhys — a story of cursed families and inherited vengeance, inexplicable horrors and impossible dreams and a country haunted, as Hosein reminds us, by the ghosts of the indentured . . . [A] sumptuous, brilliantly written novel
The Times
A tale that throbs with the threat of danger, both emotional and physical … Hungry Ghosts is a dazzling debut
Independent
Rich in vocabulary and description, the novel situates characters in a meticulously detailed setting that evokes Middlemarch, with a similar empathy for human struggle . . . In scope and style it’s not far off a masterpiece
Financial Times, Highlights for 2023
A striking debut of violence, religion and family struggles set in 1940s colonial Trinidad
Guardian, Highlights for 2022
[Hosein's] story, often brutal, ultimately tragic, is nevertheless lit by a wide embrace reaching beyond place and people to the bedrock . . . Immersive, persuasive: an elemental ‘portal to the Caribbean’ delivered in a distinctive voice
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Both a family drama and an acute study of social structure . . . A highly recommended story of family and class divides that will break readers’ hearts
Library Journal
The biggest, most frightening, beautiful and alive novel I’ve read in as long as I can remember
Evie Wyld
A vibrant portrait of Trinidad in the 1940s . . . [Hosein's] story, often brutal, ultimately tragic, is nevertheless lit by a wide embrace reaching beyond place and people to the bedrock. Immersive, persuasive: an elemental “portal to the Caribbean” delivered in a distinctive voice
Kirkus (starred review)
In Hungry Ghosts, Kevin Jared Hosein takes a small place, a particular slice of Trinidad and writes it with the depth and scope that it deserves. And he does it because he knows it – truly, deeply. The result is a story that is harrowing, fiercely beautiful and deeply human. I won’t soon forget these characters or this story. I think we are going to be talking about this book for a long time to come
Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
Hungry Ghosts is an astonishing novel – linguistically gorgeous, narratively propulsive and psychologically profound
Bernardine Evaristo
This is a deeply impressive book, and I think an important one. Its intensity, its narrative attack, the fascinations of its era and setting, make it impossible to tear the attention away. Energy and inventiveness distinguish every page
Hilary Mantel
[Hungry Ghosts] is beautiful, biblical, vast in scope and power, ringing with an energy that blasts from the intricate language. Hosein is a new enormous giant of fiction
Daisy Johnson

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