‘Til the Well Runs Dry takes us to the 1940s to the 1960s, from Trinidad to America and weaves a familiar Caribbean story of a young girl who falls in love and is left to raise her four children on her own. It begins in the 1940s in Trinidad, with 16-year-old Marcia Garcia who was left to raise two boys everyone assumes to be her sons by her father. She meets a young police officer, who falls for her and enlists the help of an obeah woman to win Marcia’s heart. The effects of his actions alter his and Marcia’s and their children’s lives deeply and irrevocably.
Told through the eyes of Marcia, her young man, Farouk Karam, and her second daughter Jacqueline, we see Marcia grow into a hardened woman, trying her best to keep her pride and her family together, and how her policeman shrivels into the stereotypical Caribbean man, who drinks, runs women, and loses his job; and we read how somehow they triumph, how the bonds of family, as delicate as they can be at times, are enough to hold its members together through the toughest of situations.
What makes ‘Til the Well Runs Dry stand out is the richness of the writing. Lauren Francis-Sharma’s use of Trinidadian slang is a perfect combination that allows the reader to feel immersed in the island’s culture, but still able to understand the dialogue. Her matter-of-fact telling of each character’s despairs and achievements is enough to provoke a reaction from the reader in a way that effusively detailing it wouldn’t.
Francis-Sharma develops her characters in such a way that puts you in their shoes effortlessly. It is a book you become invested in right from the beginning and yearn for more when it ends – but, as they say, all good things must come to an end.
– Christiane Beaubrun
You can pick up your copy of ’Till the Well Runs Dry at The bookYard located at The STAR Publishing Compound, Massade, Gros Islet. Tel: 720 5048
email: bookyard@stluciastar.com
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