Ever Since We Small

(Hardback)

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An intricately woven tapestry of stories where survival, resilience and self-discovery are passed down through generations of an Indo-Trinidadian family.

Celeste Mohammed's second novel-in-stories, Ever Since We Small, is a family saga which covers a sweeping landscape from the days of the British Raj in India, to multicultural modern Trinidad. Written in a blend of Standard English and several flavours of Trinidad kriol, the book follows the bloodline of a young woman, Jayanti, after her decision to become a girmitiya, an indentured labourer in the Caribbean.

Jayanti's grandson, Lall Gopaul, seeks to escape the rural village where he was born, but becomes seduced and corrupted by urban life. His son, Shiva, is forced to take a child-bride, Salma, but never recovers from the guilt. Heartache follows for their three children - Anand, Nadya and Abby - who must each find a way to accept and yet move past their parents' failed example.

Along the journey of these ten interconnected stories, the alchemy necessary to turn the Gopauls' inheritance of pain into a "generation of gold" requires intervention by the living and dead, the "real" and the mythical, the mundane and the magical, the secular and the sacred.

Reviews

What a skilfully-woven set of connected stories, teeming with characters so lively they jump off the page. A beautiful mixture of folklore, history, the intimate pattern of family relationships, and a meditation of what it means for women, over generations, to love, endure, and grow. -- Eleanor Shearer * author of River Sing Me Home *
What is remarkable about Celeste Mohammed's book is how she creates vibrant characters from the thin threads of history. The women, beginning with the young Indian widow Jayanti all choose life over death but there is a price for freedom and it will be paid over many generations. All of Jayanti's descendants over the next hundred years want love and freedom, Salma and Yaz, Anand, Nadia and Abby, all dream of a good life but it is too early for the descendants of the indentured. Mohammed writes in a rich and vivid language where myth and gods cross the oceans all the way to Trinidad where they acquire a Caribbean sensitivity. The Mohammed-Gopaul family suffers yet their spirit endures. -- Isabelle Dupuy * author Living the Dream *

Celeste Mohammed's Ever Since We Small is an important and spell-binding odyssey of indenture and Mohammed tells it powerfully and beautifully through her evocative prose.
As a descendent of indentured labourers, Mohammed's heart wrenching stories transported me back to my own roots as the characters leapt from the pages, grabbing me until I became fully immersed in their extraordinary and harrowing lives that will continue to haunt me for years to come. Bravo to Mohammed for her outstanding achievement!

-- Priya Hein * author of Riambel *
Mohammed masterfully weaves together myth, history, and memory to illuminate the inner lives of Caribbean women whose spirits are tested but never broken by hardship. -- Kevin Jared Hosein
Ever Since We Small is a book of great candour and compassion written by a storyteller in whose skillful hands the tragic experiences of a Trinidadian family become lessons in love, life and grace. Mohammed weaves a compelling saga in lyrical and luminous prose, replete with the colour and cadence of the Caribbean. I couldn't put it down. -- Cherie Jones * author of How The One-Armed Woman Sweeps Her House *
Ever Since We Small is an evocative exploration of survival passed through generations. Celeste Mohammed traces the journey of Jayanti, an Indian woman forced into sati, whose escape from India into indentureship in Trinidad ignites a story of resilience and self-discovery. Through beautifully observed, steely writing sheathed in velvet-a style that pairs sharp insight with graceful prose-Mohammed captures the fragmented inheritances of life and culture from India, drawing on myth, history, and memory to reveal the inner lives of women, their spirits tempered but unbroken by hardship. This novel meditates on belonging, trauma, and the quiet acts of defiance that shape women's lives across time and place -- Ira Mathur * author of Love in the Dark Days *
'Ever Since We Small is a rich and captivating novel-in-stories, with beguiling characters and an emotional pull that made me want to swallow the book whole. Celeste Mohamed is a wise and consummate storyteller.' -- Jendella Benson * author of Hope&Glory and All That We've Got *

Author Bio

Celeste has been a lawyer since 2001 but she has been telling stories all her life. A native of Trinidad and Tobago, in 2016, she graduated from Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, with an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction). Celeste's goal is to dispel all myths about island-life and island-people, and to showcase the musicality and resonance of Trinidadian creole (kriol). Her work has appeared in The New England Review, Litmag, Epiphany, The Rumpus, among other places. She is the recipient of a 2018 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She was also awarded the 2019 Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction, and the 2017 John D Gardner Memorial Prize for Fiction.