It’s been a while since I’ve done an author spotlight here on the blog (type ‘spotlight’ in to search field to the right to find previous spotlights). The title of New York based Antiguan and Barbudan writer Sislyn Peters’ book, Undocumented Citizen, caught my eye this morning – perhaps because of US politics and how much that term and the status of immigrants has been a part of the conversation (and not just in the US). I haven’t read Peters’ book but google books did cough up an excerpt.
And based on the book summary, it seems to draw on the writer’s experience (though fictionalized), not necessarily of being undocumented but of relocating from the Caribbean to the US., and navigating the strangeness of being in a foreign land.
“Nineteen-year-old Naomi Abram is lost at sea with her heart-throb, a Bible, and a notebook, and crash-lands on a beach, in the dark, in Puerto Rico. She boards the wrong plane for home, and unwittingly enters the U.S.A., where she lives an undocumented, stagnant lifestyle. Naomi is forced to lie about where she’s from, in order to maintain employment; but her conscience keeps her moral values tame. She experiences horror, when her landlady dies; grief and guilt, when her brother dies; fright and fear, when confronted by law enforcement; and joy, when she sneaks out of the Country and visits her family. While in Antigua, she learns that a new culture, Rastafarianism, is sweeping the island.
After waiting and hoping for more than a decade, Naomi’s presence in the U.S.A. is finally documented.”
Undocumented Citizen is available online.
As with all content on wadadlipen.wordpress.com, except otherwise noted, this is written by Joanne C. Hillhouse (author of The Boy from Willow Bend, Dancing Nude in the Moonlight, Musical Youth, With Grace, Lost! A Caribbean Sea Adventure, its Spanish language edition Perdida! , and Oh Gad! ). All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed it, check out my page Jhohadli or like me on Facebook. Help me spread the word about Wadadli Pen and my books. You can also subscribe to the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks.
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