River Mumma (Penguin Canada), the highly-anticipated second book from Zalika Reid-Benta, follows a spirited narrator in the throes of a quarter-life crisis, set against Toronto’s bustling urban backdrop. Beleaguered by her lack of prospects, Alicia is astonished when the Jamaican deity River Mumma presents herself with a mission; what ensues is a madcap adventure involving pursuit by malevolent duppies. Drawing on rich Jamaican storytelling rituals, Reid-Benta offers a modern fable for unmoored millennials, and for all those seeking a sanctuary. 

The Blue, Beautiful World (Del Rey) by Barbadian speculative fiction writer Karen Lord sets a superstar cast of would-be heroes against the impending promise of Earth’s First Contact with an alien species. From rockstars to diplomats, scientists to military personnel, The Blue, Beautiful World not only serves an unforgettable cast of characters, it explores the cult of personality taken to extremes. The novel asks, “How far would you go in pursuit of your ultimate power, at risk of losing yourself?”

The Rivers Are Inside Our Homes (University of Notre Dame Press) by Cuban-American poet Victoria María Castells channels fairytale and folklore to report on the environmental crises gripping the Caribbean. An inventive blend of speculative and journalistic elements, this debut poetry collection centres Cuba’s landscape and history, remarking on generations of conquest, and the struggle for self-affirmation. The inherent complexities of a hybridised existence are explored in The Rivers Are Inside Our Homes: these poems contemplate exile and fragmented belonging.

Winner of the 2021 Nan Shepherd Prize, established to celebrate underrepresented voices in nature writing, Uprooting (Canongate Books) by Marchelle Farrell is a debut non-fiction ode to an English countryside garden. Farrell, a Trinidadian therapist, describes her move to the UK, to an idyllic town in which she was the only Black woman. Her ensuing quest to nurture her garden forms the basis of the book’s reflection: Farrell tends to greenery while deeply pondering her place in a xenophobic England. 

From Kereen Getten, winner of the inaugural Bocas Lit Fest Children's Book Prize, comes a coming-of-age novel for young readers, If You Read This (Yearling). Focusing on Brie, who mourns her mother’s death by remembering the treasure hunt games they played together, the book investigates themes of loss, remembering, and reconciliation. Brie is reunited with her mother’s voice one final time, in a box of letters on her twelfth birthday: Getten positions healing after trauma as vital to the narrative.