{"product_id":"what-a-mothers-love-dont-teach-you-9780349015545","title":"What A Mothers Love Dont Teach You","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e''AN OUTSTANDING DEBUT'' CHERIE JONES, author of \u003ci\u003eHow the One-Armed Sister Sweeps her House\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''VIVID AND AUTHENTIC'' LEONE ROSS, author of\u003ci\u003e This One Sky Day\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt eighteen years old, Dinah gave away her baby son to the rich couple she worked for before they left Jamaica. They never returned. She never forgot him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEighteen years later, a young man comes from the US to Kingston. From the moment she sees him, Dinah never doubts - this is her son.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat happens next will make everyone question what they know and where they belong.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA powerful story of belonging, identity and inheritance, \u003ci\u003eWhat a Mother''s Love Don''t Teach You \u003c\/i\u003ebrings together a blazing chorus of voices to evoke Jamaica''s ghetto, dance halls, criminal underworld and corrupt politics, at the beating heart of which is a mother''s unshakeable love for her son.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''TAKES US ON A WONDERFUL MULTIFACETED JOURNEY THORUGH THE LIVES, LOVES, PLEASURES AND ATROCIT\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA \u003cb\u003ecacophonic, alive, heart-breaking story \u003c\/b\u003eof a particular place and time, made universal by its truths and wisdom about love. * Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePulses with the colour and cadence of Jamaican culture in a multi-layered story told with empathy and intelligence. \u003c\/b\u003eIt is both an elegy of great elegance and a testament to the resilience and optimism of Jamaican people. Sharma's skilled storytelling drew me into the heads and hearts of the residents of Jacks Hill and Lazarus Gardens and did not let me go. I'll never forget this cast of characters or the voice of this accomplished writer - \u003cb\u003ean outstanding debut\u003c\/b\u003e. * Cherie Jones, author of How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House *\u003cbr\u003eImagine yourself on your front porch with your neighbour, in the cool of the afternoon when all your housework is done; get yourself a little coconut water and allow Sharma Taylor to tell you about all the goings-on of this neighbourhood of Kingston. Girl, if you see drama! Drama, girl! ! And this being the Caribbean, nobody's going to walk on by when they hear a good story being told, and before you know it, you have the whole cast of characters on the porch with you, everyone clamouring to tell their side of the story - \u003cb\u003ethe Jamaican dialogue in this novel is a particular strength. \u003c\/b\u003eAs one of the characters proclaims, about a particularly good spliff: \"Is de real stuff, dis, my yute!\"\u003cb\u003e Rich and exuberant. \u003c\/b\u003e * Claire Adam, author of the Desmond Elliot Prize-winning Golden Child *\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTruth-telling! Taylor's debut is \u003cb\u003etender, violent and uncompromising\u003c\/b\u003e in turns. A vivid and authentic Jamaica that tells a tale too often hidden, for fantasies of sun, sea and sand.\u003c\/p\u003e * Leone Ross, author of This One Sky Day *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn arresting first novel\u003c\/b\u003e. As if to nod to the Jamaican national motto \"Out of Many One People,\" Taylor's novel gives voice to multiple perspectives on how class, race and gender are lived in this \"exotic\" Caribbean island and at what cost to human relationships. * Lisa Allen-Agostini, author of the Woman's Prize longlisted The Bread the Devil Knead *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eA sharp polyphonous story in which Taylor skillfully moves the reader through a world pulsing with pain, love, power, violence and tenderness. We are reminded of that tension between where we come from and what we gravitate towards, what steers us and why.\u003cb\u003e An exciting read.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e * Yewande Omotoso, author of The Woman Next Door *\u003cbr\u003eTakes us on a wonderful multifaceted journey through the lives, loves, pleasures and atrocities of the folks of Lazarus Gardens and Jacks Hill. There is an impressive choral quality to \u003ci\u003eWhat a Mother's Love Don't Teach You\u003c\/i\u003e, with \u003cb\u003evoices that shift with remarkable ease and seamlessness, between lyricism, humour and rawness.\u003c\/b\u003e A very impressive achievement. * Jacob Ross, author of The Bone Readers *\u003cbr\u003eWarm, wise, unflinching. \u003cb\u003eTaylor's skill with character and voice shines \u003c\/b\u003ein this immersive story of living and loving under the shadow of betrayal. * Karen Lord, author of Redemption in Indigo *\u003cbr\u003eAn astonishing book. In riveting, irresistible prose, Sharma Taylor's genre-crossing novel (a love story, a crime story, a yard fiction) tells a tale of Jamaica and America, of class, colour, race, history and the dignity of the dispossessed. The authenticity of its detail produces a searing truth that convicts us. \u003cb\u003eThe largeness of its vision challenges our ideas of what it means to be human.\u003c\/b\u003e * Curdella Forbes, author of A Tall History of Sugar *\u003cbr\u003eSharma Taylor's accomplished debut novel transports the reader from the rarefied air of Kingston's Jacks Hill to the gritty reality of inner city Lazarus Gardens. Told by an unforgettable cast of characters, each speaking searing truths of their own Jamaica, these\u003cb\u003e compelling voices will linger long after the last page.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eWhat a Mother's Love Don't Teach You\u003c\/i\u003e is a fine achievement. * Diana McCaulay, author of Daylight Come *\u003cbr\u003eIn the opening chapter of \u003ci\u003eWhat A Mother's Love Don't Teach You\u003c\/i\u003e, Dinah describes her home, the tenement yard at Lazarus Gardens, as a place where, \"is like everyday, the water have to decide if to come inside.\" In essence, the novel is about just that: choices. Written in alternating voices - sometimes Jamaican patois, sometimes Standard English - Sharma Taylor reveals how and why the choices of the denizens of Lazarus Gardens necessarily differ from the choices of Jamaica's uptown folk. \u003cb\u003eTaylor's great accomplishment is how she captures the darkness of the ghetto while never dimming the vivacity, determination and exuberance displayed by its people. This is a thrilling read.\u003c\/b\u003e * Celeste Mohammed, author of Pleasantview *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThis forceful novel offers a collision of pasts and present, mothers and sons and lovers,\u003c\/b\u003e offered up in language that eloquently highlights our divisions and the (rare) possibilities of true connection. This is a character-led novel where pace is as important as tone and place comes singing off the page. Somehow Taylor has managed to create a work that is polyphony \u003ci\u003eand\u003c\/i\u003e cacophony \u003ci\u003eand\u003c\/i\u003e gloriously, simultaneously, symphony. * Stella Duffy, author of Lullaby Beach *\u003cbr\u003eTaylor portrays a complex web of Jamaican characters in settings ranging from tenement yards to mansions with an authenticity that radiates throughout the novel. Set in an important time in the island's history, it's a colourful portrayal of a young man searching for his soul, the two mothers desperate to claim him, and the ultimate sacrifice one has to make. \u003cb\u003eA wonderful debut novel\u003c\/b\u003e. * Gillian Royes. author of the Shad series *\u003cbr\u003eSharma Taylor's \u003cb\u003elive-wire debut is a crackling, earthy and colourful\u003c\/b\u003e social realist polyphony that brings to life the bullet-strewn Jamaica of the 1980s. * Rob Doyle, author of Threshold *\u003cbr\u003eSharma Taylor \u003cb\u003ewrites in extra high definition: colour, language, landscape and atmosphere\u003c\/b\u003e. But it is her laser-like, yet careful study of the inner thoughts and emotions of her characters that fascinates. An astonishing first novel. * Esther Phillips, Poet Laureate of Barbados *\u003cbr\u003eSharma Taylor's \u003ci\u003eWhat a Mother's Love Don't Teach You\u003c\/i\u003e explores essential aspects of Jamaica's Social Psychological Environment which Marlon James's \u003ci\u003eA Brief History of Seven Killings\u003c\/i\u003e leaves unpainted. In short, these two works could usefully be read together. May Sharma's work meet the kind of success that Marlon's work has. * Erna Brodber, author of Nothing's Mat *\u003cbr\u003eVoices are strong, resilient and compelling, right from the start, with sharp, vivid imagery. An ambitious novel about the Caribbean in the eighties, but also well before then and even now. What kind of Jamaica have we made, what may we yet inherit? * Robert Edison Sandiford, author of And Sometimes They Fly *\u003cbr\u003eThis novel, a page-turner in every way, is skilfully plotted and brilliantly written. Taylor's \u003cb\u003eunforgettable characters\u003c\/b\u003e, vivid portrayal of human ruthlessness counterpoised with communal solidarity and generosity, and deft use of the Jamaican vernacular are some of the many striking features of \u003cb\u003ethis superb novel.\u003c\/b\u003e * Nigel Thomas, author of Spirits in the Dark *\u003cbr\u003eEchoes the dilemma of having to give up home and family\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eto find hope elsewhere. Precious things wagered in pursuit of better might never be regained. Taylor's intimate portrayals of this dissonance is communicated through\u003cb\u003e authentic voices full of universal truth, love and forgiveness.\u003c\/b\u003e * Roland Watson-Grant, author of Sketcher *\u003cbr\u003eA beautifully crafted debut, rich with rhythmic, lyrical patois and surprising revelations * Jacqueline Crooks *\u003cbr\u003eI was knocked out by this novel. It's a fantastic, enthralling story of clashing cultures: very funny and then utterly heartbreaking. The vibrant and terrifying world of Kingston in the eighties is totally gripping and the dialogue is so alive that I find it hard to believe it's a first novel * Mick Kitson, author of Sal *\u003cbr\u003eSharma Taylor's debut novel \u003ci\u003eWhat A Mother's Love Don't Teach You\u003c\/i\u003e is a brilliant examination of lives in Jamaica. Taylor writes powerfully about those lives, trapped in often distressing social circumstances, with wit and a searingly analytical eye. Always, though, her empathy with the characters comes through, so the reader is ensnared by her artistry and is willing to seek to understand each character, no matter how superficially evil. The true power of the work comes from its thorough grounding in the Jamaican experience, the cascade of similes that enlighten and the descriptions of the physical landscapes. All of these combine to create an impression on the reader that is not only visual but profoundly emotional. \u003cb\u003eAn extraordinary first novel\u003c\/b\u003e * Ronald A. Williams,  author of A Death in Panama *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJamaican literature has a future. Her name is Sharma Taylor.\u003c\/b\u003e * Kei Miller, author of THE CARTOGRAPHER TRIES TO MAP A WAY TO ZION *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhat a Mother's Love Don't Teach You\u003c\/i\u003e is \u003cb\u003eboth heartbreaking and illuminating . . . \u003c\/b\u003eSharma's voice is vital and necessary * Shivanee Ramlochan, award-winning editor and poet, author of Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting (shortlisted in 2018 for the Forward Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection) *\u003cbr\u003eAs Sharma Taylor's debut proves with fevered intensity, some threads remain unbreakable despite the cruel vicissitudes of fate. Guiding her novel with a tension-laced economy, Taylor offers a prismatic cast of figures swirling around Dinah and her estranged son. In the voices of gang leaders and snake-tongued statesmen, redoubtable matriarchs and kiss-teeth gossips, the multiple worlds of 1980s Jamaica soar to life, vividly and dramatically realised. \u003ci\u003eWhat a Mother's Love Don't Teach You\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cb\u003ejoins a formidable contemporary canon that refuses to portray the Caribbean as idyllic pastiche. It's a tender triumph\u003c\/b\u003e * Caribbean Beat *","brand":"Little, Brown Book Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48733643014487,"sku":"9780349015545","price":9.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780349015545.jpg?v=1720000988","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/what-a-mothers-love-dont-teach-you-9780349015545","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}