The Rhythm of the August Rain
Page 29
In the summer of 1989, I was the associate producer for a BBC documentary that was being filmed in Jamaica about the remnants of African culture in the Caribbean. The island’s Rastafarian community was included in the film, and my memories of our visit to a Nyabinghi camp and our conversations with its leaders have never left me.
I had no idea then that my intense experience would culminate in a work of fiction, but here it is. Another contributing factor to this novel has been my growing respect for the Rastafarian lifestyle, which started long before the word organic became a buzzword, and for the conscious lyrics of Rastafarian singers—a refreshing alternative to some of the not-so-conscious dancehall songs.
While writing this book, I have tried to be as authentic as possible, although I have employed the more accessible acrolect form of Jamaican dialect because of the diversity of my readers. Several people and literary works have given me a better understanding of the movement. Ras Yasus Afari, dub poet, musician, and author, became my friend at a book festival in Anguilla a few years ago, and I am grateful for our friendship. Additionally, his book, Overstanding Rastafari: Jamaica’s Gift to the World, gave me a clear explanation of his people’s philosophy and language.
Another invaluable resource was the late scholar Dr. Barry Chevannes’s Rastafari: Roots and Ideology, which traces the history of Rastafari back to the nineteenth century. Others have been The Kebra Nagast: The Lost Bible of Rastafarian Wisdom and Faith by Gerald Hausman, and Tracy Nicholas’s Rastafari: A Way of Life. Leonard Barrett’s The Rastafarians provided me with the real-life Nyabinghi scene in the novel. For Internet language resources, I used www.jumieka.com, created by Larry Chang, and so many other online Rasta dictionaries that I won’t begin to list them.
It takes a village to birth a novel as much as a child, because a novelist works with the assistance and forgiveness of many, many people. I have had no greater support than from my colleagues at the University of the Virgin Islands, including President David Hall and his wife, Marilyn, Provost Camille McKayle-Stolz, former dean Simon Jones-Hendrickson, and my chairman, Dr. Alex Randall. They have done everything in their power to allow me to write, and they continue to make my teaching experience at UVI a delightful one.
Additionally, I had the great fortune of being invited back to Jamaica for five weeks, which inspired me as I completed this novel. For that invitation I thank Valerie Facey, who took care of my every need while I was on the island editing a memoir. Working in Jamaica, living in both Kingston and on a farm, not only assisted me in making the final touches to my own manuscript, but inspired my thoughts about the next.
The team who is always behind me continues to offer their support. Eric Peterson, my reader, I thank for his sage and gentle advice. Maria and Larry Earl, part of my Atlanta family, offered their home yet again, and my daughter, Lauren, boosted my spirits and pushed me onward whenever I needed it. To Malaika Adero, my former editor, who continued to believe in me through thick and thin, I owe such a debt of gratitude that it will never be repaid. I also wish to thank my new editor, Sarah Branham, who valiantly took me on as one of her authors, giving me great advice in her editing and making the transition as seamless as possible.
GILLIAN ROYES is the author of three previous novels in the Shadrack Myers mystery series, which is set along the North Coast of her native Jamaica and includes, most recently, The Sea Grape Tree. She currently lives in Atlanta and on the island of St. Croix, where she lectures at the University of the Virgin Islands. Find out more at GillianRoyes.com.
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Also by Gillian Royes
The Sea Grape Tree
The Goat Woman of Largo Bay
The Man Who Turned Both Cheeks
Business Is Good
Sexcess: The New Gender Rules at Work
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Gillian Royes
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Royes, Gillian.
The rhythm of the August rain : a novel / Gillian Royes. —First Atria Paperback edition.
pages ; cm. —(A Shadrack Myers mystery ; 4)
1. Bartenders—Jamaica—Fiction. 2. Private investigators—Jamaica—Fiction. 3. Cold cases (Criminal investigation)—Fiction. 4. Jamaica—Social life and customs—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3618.O92R49 2015
813’–dc23 2015019812
ISBN 978-1-4767-6240-1
ISBN 978-1-4767-6241-8 (ebook)