Finding the summer’s Best Beach Read

By Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon
CJ Travel Editor

When you’re on vacation at a Caribbean resort do you ever consider the people who work there and the details of their lives beyond the resort gates? After you read Here Comes The Sun, the debut novel from Jamaican writer Nicole Dennis-Benn, you will.

Set in the recent past in River Bank, a fictional village on the outskirts of Montego Bay, Jamaica, the book tells the story of four women whose lives are all connected to the tourism industry and the looming resort development that threatens to destroy their struggling community. Dennis-Benn’s characters are painstakingly drawn, and you can’t help but become quickly invested in their fate. How far will Margot, who struggles to climb the ladder at the hotel where she works while hiding her lesbian relationship with outcast Verdene, go to get herself and her teenage sister, Thandi, out of the ghetto? Will Thandi, whose success in school is critical to the family’s future, muster the courage to reveal her true ambition? Do the unspeakable actions taken by tough-as-nails matriarch, Delores, to secure her daughters’ success justify the ends?

Over 40 riveting chapters Dennis-Benn takes readers on a revealing journey that explores themes of self-discovery, racism, sexuality and classism. Fraught with sharp turns and plot twists, it’s a ride which races to a startling denouement that leaves you wanting more and pondering the characters long after you’ve turned the last page.

Here Comes The Sun is a gripping beach read that will stay with you all season. So once you get halfway through, don’t be surprised if you start rationing your reading. Because, just like the summer, you won’t want this page-turner to end.