From Journey Prize winner, RBC/Writers' Trust Bronwen Wallace Award finalist, and CBC literary awards finalist, comes a story of politics, revolution, and the redemptive power of music.
Grenada, 1983. Opera star Felicity returns to her mother's homeland to perform a benefit recital and reconnect with a past lover, but when an armed coup traps her under house arrest with her estranged friends in the revolutionary government, she reflects on her life as she navigates political tensions to survive.
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Summary
From Journey Prize winner, RBC/Writers' Trust Bronwen Wallace Award finalist, and CBC literary awards finalist, comes a story of politics, revolution, and the redemptive power of music.
Grenada, 1983. Opera star Felicity returns to her mother's homeland to perform a benefit recital and reconnect with a past lover, but when an armed coup traps her under house arrest with her estranged friends in the revolutionary government, she reflects on her life as she navigates political tensions to survive.
Description
Felicity Alexander should be charming audiences at New York's Metropolitan Opera, not under house arrest in Grenada in October 1983, as rumours swirl that United States troops are preparing to invade.
Born and raised in Winnipeg, the daughter of a Grenadian woman and an absent white father, Felicity is blessed with enviable beauty and an extraordinary singing voice. Arriving in London to study opera in 1965, she finds early success and joy on stage, as well as a sense of belonging in the arms of the charming Claude Buckingham. Members of the West Indian Students Association, Claude and his friends are law students and activists. They plan to return to Grenada to overthrow the corrupt dictator, "Uncle" Percy Tibbs.
Felicity and Claude's intense affair cannot survive their diverging destinies. Claude brings revolution to Grenada and becomes a minister in the new Black Pearls of Freedom government; Felicity devotes herself to music, conquering the racism and sexism of the opera world to rise to international stardom. The brighter she shines, the more she struggles to find her place and purpose in life.
Her career in ascendance, Felicity accepts an invitation to perform in Grenada. The red sky of revolution calls to her almost as much as the hope of Claude's embrace. But their reunion is interrupted by a coup. Surrounded by soldiers and guns, Felicity's voice is born anew.
Critic Reviews
"The World So Wide combines a story of lost love with a political revolution in Grenada."
--Amy Wilson "Novels Alive""Fascinating ... A woman returns to her roots in Zilla Jones's entrancing historical novel The World So Wide, about lost love amid a revolution."--Karen Rigby "Foreword Reviews"
About the Author
Zilla Jones is an African-Canadian anti-racist educator, lawyer, mother, and singer of Caribbean, Chinese, and European heritage, writing on Treaty 1 territory (Winnipeg). She was born in the UK and now lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is a winner of the Journey Prize, a finalist for The Writers' Trust Bronwen Wallace Emerging Writers Award, and a finalist for the CBC Short Story Prize. Her writing has appeared in many literary journals including Event Magazine, The Fiddlehead, Prairie Fire, The Malahat Review, and Bayou Magazine.
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