Love After Love: Winner of the 2020 Costa First Novel Award

Great book!! Purchased a used copy and it was like brand new.

While I liked this book a lot, but you do have to get used to reading the dialect. Once you get used to that is flows. The novel is essentially about family and what is family. Most people think of the traditional family of mother and father and children. But those are not always wholesome relationships. In our new and changing world, family is often created in different ways. And family relationships often end different ways and not just by death. When a family rejects a person, then that family relationship is over, just the same way when a person dies. This is a story of domestic abuse; life as a homosexual man; life as an immigrant; life as a mother and life as a widow. It is about grief and anger. It deals at length about people who self mutilate which is apparently a big problem. It seems that all of the characters are looking for happiness, especially Mr. Chetan who manages to find love in all the wrong places. The place that he did find love, with Betty, is a place that he could not accept or did not want to accept. It's an interesting read about the culture of the Indian people who have lived in Trinidad for many generations. It is also very depressing but faces many of the problems that people face in real life.

Beautiful story about love, loss, and forgiveness. This story will warm your heart, make you laugh, and cry both happy and sad tears. Brave characters and written in such a way you will feel every emotion they experience. One of the best books I have read this year. Highly recommend.

Raised in the Caribbean and now returned here as an adult, every aspect of this book appealed to me. The beautiful scenes of the land are so clearly depicted with such precision that you are transported to Trinidad . My love for each character grew with every page and as the story evolved, the author drew me even closer to them so much so that my heart literally broke as the story climaxed. I loved the way the humor of our people’s slang as well as “ our Caribbean ways” lightened the story but yet did not distract from its overall message that true love and acceptance come in so many forms and when least expected but once there binds us so tightly that a unit is formed- a family in its own right. I will forever cherish this.

Great character development. I liked the story told alternating between characters. Well told, good story line. Enjoyed this a lot.