Passage, for which Kevin Jared Hosein won the 2018 Commonwealth short story prize, tells the tale of a middle-aged urban Trinidadian who becomes fixated on a “forest family” he chances upon while hiking. At its heart is the clash between the mediated reality of modernity – the selfie sticks brandished by tourists, the iPads the narrator’s children barricade themselves behind – and the meaning and value of the lives of those who have rejected such apparent progress.
Hungry Ghosts expands on this theme of histories and cultures at an impasse. Set in the 1940s, as American destroyers arrive in Trinidad’s diminutive harbours and naval bases displace village communities, it reaches into the country’s past as a much-trafficked colonial possession and hints at the complications that might accompany its journey towards a still-distant independence. High on the list of these complications is the treatment of the island’s marginalised Hindu population, whose rights are curtailed in law. In a scene near the beginning of the book, we witness 13-year-old Krishna railing at a shopkeeper who will not let him enter, while his father, Hans, enjoins his son not to cause trouble.
