Connecting Africa to the Caribbean through vibrant, sensuous descriptions, this collection of stories follows a young white girl who is plunged into a puzzling awareness of the complexities of race relations. Whether trying to understand her parents, their Muslim servant’s sense of the sacred, or the incomprehensible prohibitions of a colonial childhood, the maturing girl struggles to rectify the constant tension between the sense of separateness and the desire to belong. Told in a touching, first-person voice, this collection of elegant and poignant stories captures the anima of Africa and the Caribbean.