Naniki by Oonya Kempadoo

Explore the musings and inner workings of the Caribbean Sea — and its shape-shifting sea beings

Image | Naniki by Oonya Kempadoo

(Dundurn Press)

As the sea mirrors the light from the blue skies, and its depths are exposed by daggers of sunlight, so too Naniki reveals and honours the Indigenous roots of the Caribbean and its people, whose destiny is tied to the sea, the vessel of collective memory.

Amana and Skelele are made of water and air, their essence intertwined with Taino and African ancestry. They evolved as elemental beings of the Anthropocene, and shape-shifting with their naniki (active spirits) or animal avatars, they begin an archipelagic journey throughout the Caribbean Basin to see the strange future they dreamed of. Until devastation erupts.

Tasked by their elders to go back in time to the source of the First People's knowledge, they must surmount historical and mythological challenges alike. How can they navigate and overcome these obstacles to regenerate themselves, their love, their islands and their seas? (From Rare Machines)
Grenadian English Guyanese author Oonya Kempadoo lives in Montreal. Her first three novels have great acclaim across each side of the Atlantic, including the Casa De Las Americas Prize, and have been translated into several languages.