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On an inward-looking island dominated by the Catholic Church, John Lestrade mourns both the death of friends and the inauthentic, suffocating quality of his own life. When he feels he can no longer find solace in his regular means of escape--a room on a hill--he forsakes his self-imposed exile and finds himself drawn to action and defiance. Opening himself up to change, John discovers hope and gleans the possibility of change and an escape from the inauthentic. Originally published in 1968, this intense and minimalist novel engages philosophical ideas, religious tradition, and colonial consciousness.

Told through the memories of John Campbell, an old man whose life goes back to the Morant Bay rebellion of 1865, this novel is an intensely vivid narrative of the history of Jamaican nationalism. In the present, John Campbell's grandnephew Garth listens eagerly to the old man's story, gathering information and advice for his generation's nationalist movement. First published in 1949, this novel is a pioneering work both in exploiting the rhythms of Caribbean language and recounting the making of Jamaican national consciousness from the perspective of the black majority. It explores the conflict between a violent and peaceful means in the struggle for social justice.

This novel, set in a yard which is a microcosm of Kingston slum life, sets out as Mais himself said to give "a true picture of the real Jamaica and the dreadful condition of the working classes."