Me Dying Trial

(Paperback)

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With a New Introduction by Edwidge Danticat Me Dying Trial, Patricia Powell's masterful debut novel, establishes her as a major voice in Caribbean literature. Gwennie Augusta Glaspole, a schoolteacher, is trapped in an unhappy marriage and quickly saddled with six children. Gwennie resists Jamaican cultural expectations of playing dutiful wife and mother, struggling in a loveless, often abusive relationship, she eventually relocates to Connecticut. Dealing with issues of religion, sexuality, immigration, domestic violence, and gender inequality, Powell has proven to be "a Generation-X vanguard for the Caribbean literary world" (Boston Magazine), and much more.

Reviews

Powell shows us the living within the dying, the foreigner within the native born, the male within the female. Her tales unfold like dreams spread out on a table.
Danzy Senna, author of Caucasia

One of the most exciting writers living and writing on the island that is the Caribbean-American hyphen.
Edwidge Danticat, author of Breath, Eyes, Memory

With her flawless ear for the poetic vernacular of her native Jamaica and her in-depth understanding of the complexity of island society, Powell continues to affirm the Caribbeans rightful place on the literary map of the world.
Paule Marshall, author of Praisesong for the Widow

Me Dying Trial pays homage to mothers, aunts, and grandmothers, who are the heart of a Caribbean household. At times I almost forgot that I was reading a novel, for I was finally hearing and looking into the silences Ive wanted to ask my mother about her womanhood in Jamaica and her immigration to New York as a single mother of three. Patricia Powell is one of our greatest Caribbean writers. Me Dying Trial is an inspiration.
Alexia Arthurs, author of How to Love a Jamaican

Patricia Powell does something golden in her storytellingshe uses our Jamaican dialect to effectively communicate our pains, sorrows, and triumphs. Me Dying Trial is a powerful work of fiction and an absolutely important contribution to Caribbean literature.
Nicole Dennis-Benn, best-selling author of PATSY and Here Comes the Sun

Author Bio

Patricia Powell is the author of A Small Gathering of Bones, The Pagoda and a forthcoming novel, The Good Life. Her awards include the Bruce Rossley Literary Award, the Ferro-Grumley Award for Fiction, and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award. Powell has taught creative writing at Harvard University, Wellesley College, and the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Currently she is Martin Luther King Visiting Professor at MIT. Powell lives in Watertown, Massachusetts.