Kevin Jared Hosein, 36, is a teacher and writer from Trinidad, where he lives and works. He won the Commonwealth writers’ prize in 2018 for his story Passage and he has written two novels for young adults, The Repenters and The Beast of Kukuyo. His first novel for adults, Hungry Ghosts, is set in 1940s Trinidad and concerns the wife of an overseer who goes missing and the attempts by one of his employees to move up in a highly stratified society. Hilary Mantel called it “a deeply impressive book… and an important one”.
What is a hungry ghost (a preta)?
It originated in ancient Hindu tradition, where if you commit certain sins, [when you die] you transform into a being where your mouth is very small and your appetite is extremely large. So you would have this unending hunger and no way to satiate it. I thought it was a good analogy to explain the character motivations in the book, especially where social mobility is concerned and whatever life you attain; it can never be enough.
