Free

“In Jamaican parlance, a ‘freeness’ is an act of generosity, freely given. Martin Mordecai’s novel Free, then, is aptly named. . . . It is an astounding act of remembrance, incorporating the diverse races, histories, languages and realities that were creolized to make the Caribbean what it is today . . . a tour de force of historical fiction, a passionate and vital story told by those whose words are so often silenced: the survivors. It is as rich and dark as Caribbean plum cake, as complex in flavours, each ingredient as troubled in provenance, yet in combination a Jamaica to have so clear an impact.”

“In Free, history comes alive in the hands of a master prose stylist and a meticulous researcher. Martin Mordecai’s brilliant

evocation of people, places and events makes us eyewitnesses to Jamaica’s Christmas Rebellion, a daring act of liberation by enslaved African Jamaicans that would hasten the end of chattel slavery in the British colonies. Generations to come will thank Mordecai for enabling us to see with new eyes the people— masters and enslaved—and their shared world of inhumanity that had to be destroyed.”