Caribbean Fiction Collection | The Center for Fiction

“Reading the Caribbean means you read the world”
—Shivanee Ramlochan

As a cultural institution in downtown Brooklyn, our overarching goal is to reflect our community. The history of the Caribbean community in Brooklyn and throughout New York City is rich and multifaceted, going back generations. The Caribbean is an extremely prolific region of storytellers and boasts a distinct literary aesthetic. To the islands of the Caribbean, Brooklyn is the gateway to the diaspora. This idea is reflected in the numbers. Brooklyn is home to the highest concentration of Caribbean lives outside of the region. The Caribbean fiction collection within our membership library is a meticulously-researched joint project of the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival (BCLF) and The Center for Fiction. The BCLF is an organization dedicated to blazing a trail for Caribbean literature in the North American diaspora and began its partnership with The Center For Fiction in 2019. This collection is an important milestone in the ongoing shared commitment between the BCLF and The Center for Fiction to celebrate and promote the art of fiction with a specific spotlight on the incredible contributions of Caribbean authors to the literary community at large. This collection is a showcase of the writers whose work is fundamental to the appreciation of Caribbean literature. It is intended to encourage support for the work of Caribbean writers and foster a greater appreciation of the contributions of those who call that place ‘home’.

“I come from a little island with the Caribbean Sea on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. I come from, really, nowhere, and for me, the fiction and the nonfiction, creative or otherwise, all come from the same place.”
—Jamaica Kincaid

The Caribbean, as a geographical region, is a place of incredible historical relevance, staggering beauty and complex realities. Our special collection contains a range of writing styles, nationalities, and ethnicities that only begin to scratch the surface of the layered stories of this region including noir short story anthologies with writers from various countries, to classics, to contemporary masterpieces and much more. The Caribbean canon contains award-winning, versatile, culture-crossing stories, which though often uniquely expressed, wrestle and interrogate wider ideas and themes of universal relevance to the human condition.

“Historically, the Caribbean has been at the forefront of every single movement for liberation in the New World. Its writers have been the allies and scaffolding of African diaspora scholarship. Today, the newly emerging voices of their offspring bravely confront and reflect on the diaspora experience with an urgency which demands to be heard.”
—BCLF

Caribbean and Caribbean-American stories are essential to New York City, and to Brooklyn especially. We hope that this collection helps preserve part of this deep history, and adds to the diversity of our library. Those yet uninitiated into the ways and beauty of Caribbean literature will be introduced to this sect of interesting writers – writers who have shaped modern literature in their own distinctive ways.

“When I was growing up, the books I read were by Enid Blyton and in it Blyton had children going to the beach for picnics, but they wore cardigans and they ate cucumber sandwiches. . . . And so of course, I try to imitate them, but you can’t wear a cardigan on a Caribbean beach. My grandparents had a friend, Beryl McBurnie. Beryl McBurnie was quite the opposite of that. She would wear all these great colors, you know, that we lived with, the reds and the pinks and the yellows and so on. And she would talk of tamarind, pommecythere, chataigne and all those…And suddenly I realized, I think she gave me permission to write about those things and, and I felt at home doing that.”
—Elizabeth Nunez

This collection will be ever growing and evolving. We invite you to suggest titles for our collection as well, which you can do through this link.

Listed alphabetically by author’s last name

The Great American by Alex Abella
Trinidad Noir, multiple authors, ed. by Lisa Allen-Agostini
Afterlife by Julia Alvarez
A Cafecito Story by Julia Alvarez
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
In the Name of Salome by Julia Alvarez
In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
Once Upon a Quinceanera by Julia Alvarez
The Other Side by Julia Alvarez
Saving the World by Julia Alvarez
Something to Declare by Julia Alvarez
Saving the World by Julia Alvarez
¡Yo! By Julia Alvarez
How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs
The Doctor’s House by Ann Beattie
Under the Silk Cotton Tree by Jean Buffong
These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card
The Chronicle of the Seven Sorrows by Patrick Chamoiseau
Creole Folktales by Patrick Chamoiseau
Slave Old Man by Patrick Chamoiseau
Solibo by Patrick Chamoiseau
Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau
Waiting in Vain by Colin Channer
Crossing the Mangrove by Maryse Condé
I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Condé
The Story of the Cannibal Woman by Maryse Condé
Tree of Life by Maryse Condé
Victoire: My Mother’s Mother by Maryse Condé
Waiting for Waters to Rise by Maryse Condé
Windward Heights by Maryse Condé
What’s Mine and Yours by Naima Coster
Dominicana by Angie Cruz
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz
Soledad by Angie Cruz
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat
Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat
Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat
The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat
Haiti Noir, multiple authors, ed. by Edwidge Danticat
Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat
Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn
Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn
Drown by Junot Diaz
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
Around Harvard Square by Christopher John Farley
Kingston by Starlight by Christopher John Farley
My Favorite War by Christopher John Farley
Zero O’Clock by Christopher John Farley
Eccentric Neighborhoods by Rosario Ferre
The House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer by Jamie Figueroa
A Tall History of Sugar by Curdella Forbes
An Untamed State by Roxane Gay
Ayiti by Roxane Gay
Palace of the Peacock by Wilson Harris
From the Heat of the Day by Roy Heath
The Ministry of Hope by Roy Heath
The Shadow Bride by Roy Heath
So Many Islands, multiple authors, ed. by Marlon James
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
The Book of Night Women by Marlon James
Moon Witch, Spider King by Marlon James
How the One Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid
At the Bottom of the River by Jamaica Kincaid
The Autobiography of My Mother by Jamaica Kincaid
Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid
Mr. Potter by Jamaica Kincaid
My Brother by Jamaica Kincaid
My Garden by Jamaica Kincaid
See Now and Then by Jamaica Kincaid
Talk Stories by Jamaica Kincaid
The Emigrants by George Lamming
Water With Berries by George Lamming
Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall
The Chosen Place, The Timeless People by Paule Marshall
Daughters by Paule Marshall
The Fisher King by Paule Marshall
Soul Clap Hands and Sing by Paule Marshall
Amiable with Big Teeth by Claude McKay
Banana Bottom by Claude McKay
Banjo by Claude McKay
Home to Harlem by Claude McKay
Augustown by Kei Miller
The Jilkington Drama by Edgar Mittelholzer
The Life and Death of Sylvia by Edgar Mittelholzer
In Nueva York by Nicholasa Mohr
A Matter of Pride and Other Stories by Nicholasa Mohr
Rituals of Survival: A Woman’s Portfolio by Nicholasa Mohr
Cereus Blooms at Night by Shani Mootoo
Polar Vortex by Shani Mootoo
Fireflies by Shiva Naipaul
Love and Death in a Hot Country by Shiva Naipaul
An Area of Darkness by V.S. Naipaul
A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul
A Flag on the Island by V.S. Naipaul
A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
A Turn in the South by V.S. Naipaul
A Way in the World by V.S. Naipaul
Between Father and Son by V.S. Naipaul
Finding the Center by V.S. Naipaul
The Enigma of Arrival by V.S. Naipaul
Guerillas by V.S. Naipaul
Half a Life by V.S. Naipaul
Magic Seeds by V.S. Naipaul
Miguel Street by V.S. Naipaul
The Mimic Men by V.S. Naipaul
Mr. Stone and the Knight’s Companion by V.S. Naipaul
The Mystic Masseur by V.S. Naipaul
Three Novels: The Mystic Masseur, The Suffrage of Elvira, Miguel Street by V.S. Naipaul
Anna In-Between by Elizabeth Nunez
Beyond the Limbo Silence by Elizabeth Nunez
Boundaries by Elizabeth Nunez
Even in Paradise by Elizabeth Nunez
Grace by Elizabeth Nunez
Now Lila Knows by Elizabeth Nunez
Prospero’s Daughter by Elizabeth Nunez
August Frost by Monique Roffey
A Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey
The Lonely Londoners by Samuel Selvon
Tiepolo’s Hound by Derek Walcott
The Hills of Hebron by Sylvia Wynter
How to Escape from a Leper Colony by Tiphanie Yanique
The Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique
Monster in the Middle by Tiphanie Yanique