Although many books scheduled for publication in early 2020 have had their release dates pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic, titles by Caribbean and Caribbean diaspora authors continue to appear. Modern, Age, &c. (Peepal Tree), the latest poetry collection from Trinidadian Raymond Ramcharitar, offers “ferociously satiric views of the Modern Caribbean, Modern Journalism, and a world inhabited by Trump and Jong Un,” according to the publisher.

Book of the Little Axe (Atlantic Monthly Press), the second historical novel by Trinidadian-American Lauren Francis-Sharma, opens in Trinidad in 1796, when the island passes from Spanish to British colonial rule, and moves to the Native American Crow Nation in Montana, as it recounts a story of family, ancestry, birthright, and freedom. These Ghosts Are Family (Simon and Schuster), the debut novel by Maisy Card — born in Jamaica and raised in the US — is also a story of family and migration, secret histories and secret connections brought to life in the present.

Loss, love, and forgiveness are key themes in Clap When You Land (HarperCollins), a verse novel by Dominican-American writer Elizabeth Acevedo. Two sisters, separated by deception — one in the Dominican Republic, the other in New York — discover their unknown bond in the aftermath of a tragedy.

My Mother’s House (Knopf), the debut novel by Haitian-born Francesca Momplaisir, is a dark, disturbing literary thriller, exploring the dangerous legacies of violence and racism through the experience of a Haitian family migrating to New York in search of refuge and prosperity. The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana (World Editions) is the latest novel by Guadeloupean Maryse Condé — winner of the 2018 “alternative Nobel” New Academy Prize in Literature — to appear in translation. Through the story of twins with a powerful and perilous bond, the novel explores racism, terrorism, and how global inequality fuels political radicalisation.