John Hearne (1) (1926–1994)

This is an extraordinary novel, the final work of a truly great Jamaican novelist. Hearne's theme is slavery and the slave trade, and his story of the last voyage of the Sure Salvation is a powerful look at the subject.

This is the second of John Hearne's three "Cayuna" novels set in an imaginary country that maps pretty exactly to Jamaica. Here he deals with the beginnings of the bauxite industry. The theme of the novel is the relationship of the bright, horizontally upwardly mobile Rachel Ascom and her relationship with three men, the narrator Fabricus, Jojo Rhygin, and Michael Lovelace a British journalist.