When Mary-Mathilda, one of the most respected women on the colonized island of Bimshire (also known as Barbados), calls the police to confess to a crime, the result is a shattering all-night vigil. She claims the crime is against Mr. Belfeels, the powerful manager of the sugar plantation that dominates the villagers' lives and for whom she has worked for more than thirty years as a field laborer, kitchen help, and maid. She was also Mr. Belfeels's mistress, kept in good financial status in the Great House of the plantation, and the mother of his only son, Wilberforce, a successful doctor, who after living abroad returns to the island.
Set in the period following World War II, The Polished Hoe unravels over the course of twenty-four hours but spans the lifetime of one woman and the collective experience of a society characterized by slavery. Infused with Joycean overtones, this remarkable novel -- winner of the 2002 Giller Prize, the Commonwealth Writers Prize Best Book Award, Canada and Caribbean region; and a bestseller in Canada -- evokes the power of memory and the indomitable strength of the human spirit.

The Polished Hoe

Literature & Fiction

CLARKE, Austin

United States

Amistad

When Mary-Mathilda, one of the most respected women of the island of Bimshire (also known as Barbados) calls the police to confess to a crime, the result is a shattering all-night vigil that brings together elements of the island's African past and the tragic legacy of colonialism in one epic sweep. Set in the West Indies in the period following World War II, The Polished Hoe - an Essence bestseller and a Washington Post Book World Most Worthy Book of 2003 - unravels over the course of twenty-four hours but spans the collective experience of a society characterized by slavery.

The Polished Hoe: A Novel

More

From Austin Clarke, the critically acclaimed author of The Polished Hoe—winner of the Giller Prize—comes More, a powerful new novel of survival in a cold and alienating world. Certain to become a classic in contemporary world literature, More carries readers into the lonely life of an immigrant domestic—abandoned years before by a faithless husband, her life devastated by her son’s involvement in gang culture and crime—and her remarkable journey from tragedy back to the light. An unforgettable portrait of the black immigrant experience, it is a novel to be read and remembered.

More: A Novel

At the news of her son BJs involvement in gang crime, Idora Morrison, a maid at the local university, collapses in her basement apartment. For four days and nights she retreats into a vortex of memory, pain, and disappointment that becomes a riveting exposÉ of her life as a Caribbean immigrant living abroad. Abandoned by her deadbeat husband, Bertram, and left alone to raise her son, Idora has done her best to survive against immense odds. But now that BJ has disappeared into a life of crime, she recoils from his loss and is unable to get out of bed, burdened by feelings of invisibility. Slowly, however, Idora summons the strength to investigate her sons troublesand her own weaknessesas she finds her way back into the light with a courage that is both remarkable and unforgettable.

Austin Clarke (1896-1974) is one of the most important modern Irish poets since Yeats. This is a collection of his poems.

Clarke: Selected Poems (Twentieth-Century Classics)

Literary

Penguin Classics

Long out of print, these collected poems reflect the career of one of the best Irish poets of the 20th century, as important as Patrick Kavanagh, Thomas Kinsella, or Seamus Heaney. His work is distinguished by the influence of Gaelic poetry and was important in drawing the public's attention to the Irish modernists. This collection was compiled in 1974—the year of Clarke's death—and has been updated with a new introduction and expanded notes.

Collected poems

Poetry

distributed outside Ireland by Oxford University Press

The bigger light;

Contemporary

Little,Brown

When He Was Free and Young and He Used To Wear Silks

Little. Brown and Company

Storm of fortune;: A novel,

Collected Poems of Austin Clarke

Ams Pr Inc

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