Joan Riley est une auteure qui se concentre sur l'articulation des expériences des Afro-Caribéens en Angleterre. Son écriture puise souvent dans des perspectives personnelles et le travail social pour éclairer la vie des femmes d'origine caribéenne. Le travail de Riley explore les thèmes de l'identité et de l'appartenance, abordés avec une voix distinctive et empathique.
This is the moving story of Adella, who moves to Jamaica where life seems to promise so much—a respectable career and the chance of professional status as a seamstress. Adella falls in love with Stanton, whom she eventually follows to England—and who then deserts her. Now a grandmother, Adella waits for her husband to return, haunted by memories and assessing what has been achieved over the years.
Her father's violence and her new classmate's hostility force Hyacinth, eleven, to try to forget her new home in England by dreaming about her old one in Jamaica