“…she loved him more in death than she ever would in life. The living deferential to the sins of the dead. As if love was a flightless bird in life — and only truly soared when it sprouted angels’ wings upon death.”
A haunting, intense, and utterly breathtaking read.
Hungry Ghosts is set in 1940s Trinidad and Tobago. The story unfolds primarily in an impoverished settlement known as “the barracks” and within a wealthy estate owned by Dalton Changoor.
Early in the book, Dalton mysteriously disappears. While this initially feels like the central mystery, I almost forgot about him due to the richness and complexity of the characters and how their stories intertwine. I was especially captivated by the backstories of the older characters and how they came to find themselves in their current living situations.
At the heart of the story are four teenage boys navigating what strength means to them amid poverty, parental neglect, violence, and rivalry between friend groups. I loved how the author wove elements of tenderness and loyalty into the boys’ characters.
This is a heavy book, with standout themes including classism, religion, tradition and superstition, love and marriage, community, poverty, violence, and grief. I came close to tears countless times while reading.
I absolutely loved the pacing of this book and could not put it down. Hosein is a masterful storyteller, and his lyrical style of writing had me hooked from the very beginning.
A fantastic book — I cannot recommend it enough! I’ll definitely be scavenging for all of his works after this.
**Side note: Kevin Jared Hosein is coming to the Macondo Festival in Nairobi this year (2025), and I can’t wait to meet him and have my copy signed 😊
Macondo is a literary festival on African histories and futures, bringing together, for the first time on the continent, authors and artists from the Global Africa who work in Arabic, English, French and Portuguese/Spanish in conversations across perceived limitations and barriers. It usually happens in Nairobi, Kenya.
