Product Description

A voice speaking out of a distant past, describes the consequences of his desperation: his daughter and two sons are condemned to the hold of an English slave ship bound for America in 1753. Here, are the stories of these children: Nash, Martha, and Travis. Yet, as the narrative unfolds, we come to understand that although they are his children, they are also all of slavery's children. Nash, returning to Africa in the 1830's a Christian-educated adult, a missionary to the new territory of Liberia, slowly becoming a part of the world his 'masters' intended him to convert...Martha, her own daughter and husband sold away from her, settling in the American wild west of the late nineteenth century, freeing herself from slavery but never from the weight of "such misery in one life"...Travis, an American GI stationed in a small Yorkshire village during the Second World War, finding an acceptance in England that he doesn't know at home and that he may not be able to promise his half-English son...These brilliantly resonant stories - along with the slave ship captain's journal and the lamentations of the children's father - become a "many-tongued chorus of common memory", so vivid and powerful that it bridges the gaps between continents and centuries, inextricably linking the many generations of the African diaspora, one to the other.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #98732 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From the Publisher
A Booker shortlisted novel by one of the finest writers of his generation

About the Author
Caryl Phillips was born in St Kitts and now lives in London and New York. He has written for television, radio, theatre and cinema and is the author of three works of non-fiction and seven novels. Crossing the River was shortlisted for the 1993 Booker Prize and he has won the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, as well as being named the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 1992 and one of the Best of Young British Writers 1993.

Customer Reviews

Beautifully written, compelling story.
A father is forced to sell his three children, Nash, Martha, and Travis, into slavery after his crops fail. A chapter is devoted to the life story of each of the children and the trials and tribulations each went through are movingly described. The log of a slave ship captain is included as well, providing the reader with valuable insight. Within each chapter a unique voice is found, its tale told, its life unfolded. These are not only the beautifully told, touching stories of individuals, it's also a tale of 'father Africa' reaching out to all his children everywhere, knowing they will encounter numerous hardships but having faith that they can overcome all. It is impossible not to be touched by the stories and moved by the powerful messages they effectively deliver.

Beautifully written, but wanted more from the first half...
Caryl Phillips Commonwealth Writers' Prize-winning 'Crossing the river' is a beautifully written, thought-provoking and, at times, extremely moving work that dealing with experiences of the African diaspora over two and a half centuries. Although I have significant reservations about the content and structure of this work, I have no hesitation in strongly recommending this novel, particularly for the final and longest part titled 'Somewhere in England' which had me visibly (and
self-consciously) gutted in full view of hundreds in a busy, open-plan coffee shop!!

The novel consists of four chapters sandwiched within brief introductory and concluding passages. In the introductory section, a father sells his three children - Nash, Martha and Travis - into slavery. These children become the "broken off limbs of a tree" seeking to sink "hopeful roots into difficult soil in distant lands", the protagonists of three of the chapters, scattered in both place and time. The four chapters that follow are essentially three discrete short stories and a concluding novella: the only interlinking between these disparate stories is that the protagonists share names with the three children mentioned in the novel's opening which make it questionable whether this work has sufficient structural cohesion to be termed a novel.

The first chapter relates the story of Nash Williams, a former slave returning to 'the pagan coast' of Africa, to 'civilise' and convert to Christianity natives away from Monrovia in Sierra Leone. Nash's story is told primarily through letters written in the 1830s and early 1840s to his American (white) father. These letters are beautifully written and, whilst they make pleasurable reading, I had difficulty believing that they could have been written by someone with the presumably limited educational opportunities of a former slave. Furthermore, I felt short-changed by Nash's story as there is insufficient plot or character development in what essentially is a fifty-page short story.

The second chapter describes events in Martha's life as, in order to avoid being resold, she heads West towards California in search of her daughter, Eliza Mae. This very short story includes some harrowing descriptions of the effects of slavery on a family, although again I probably wanted to spend more time with Martha.

The third chapter consists of the cabin log of a twenty-six year old captain of a slaving ship in the 1750s, interspersed with his letters home to his young wife. The young James Hamilton seems uncomfortable with his vocation and station, passed down from a brutal father who died a violent death. The journals and letters provide evidence of the general harshness of life for slaves and shipmates, as well as matter-of-fact reporting in the trading of human cargo - information which, whilst interesting, is probably part of the reader's general knowledge.

The fourth section - a novella of over a hundred pages - is not merely the most successful section of the book, but amongst the most compelling and well-written stories that I've ever read. In short, diary-style entries ranging backwards and forwards primarily through the years of World War II, the reader is treated into the insights and humanity of Joyce, a reserved, socially-awkward and unhappily married young English lady who befriends an American GI, Travis. The diary notes capture Joyce's voice perfectly. This chapter has many interesting characters - not least Joyce herself - and is packed full of incident and emotion. Despite my reservations about the structure of this work and wishing that earlier chapters were more developed, this novel is highly recommended for the exceptional quality of writing, the serious issues that it raises and - above all - for its final chapter 'Somewhere in England'.