In collaboration with the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival, The Center for Fiction welcomed Lisa Allen-Agostini to celebrate her debut novel The Bread the Devil Knead, a domestic noir novel set in Trinidad’s carnival season. A writer, editor, and stand-up comedian, Allen-Agostini pens a story of strength, resolve, and self-determination in her signature feminist, Trinidadian voice. She discussed the new book and her craft with Patrice Grell Yursik, a Trinidadian-born writer and creator of award-winning blog Afrobella.com.
The Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival offers year-long programming celebrating Caribbean culture through the pen of the storyteller and the voice of the poet. The festival explores the rich depths of the culture and its long tradition of storytelling, empowerment, and courage.
Featured Book
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The Bread the Devil Knead
By Lisa Allen-Agostini
Published by Myriad Editions
Alethea Lopez is about to turn 40. Fashionable, feisty and fiercely independent, she manages a boutique in Port of Spain, but behind closed doors she’s covering up bruises from her abusive partner and seeking solace in an affair with her boss. When she witnesses a woman murdered by a jealous lover, the reality of her own future comes a little too close to home.
Bringing us her truth in an arresting, unsparing Trinidadian voice, Alethea unravels memories repressed since childhood and begins to understand the person she has become.
Her next step is to decide the woman she wants to be.
Publishing Director Candida Lacey adds: “This engrossing and atmospheric novel has a strong feminist message at the heart of its page-turning plot. It explores an abusive love-affair with searing honesty, and skillfully tackles the issue of gender violence and racism against the lush and heady backdrop of the national festival, and the music that feeds it. It’s impossible not to root for Alethea – she is an unforgettable heroine, trapped in ways she is only just beginning to understand but shining with strength, resolve and, ultimately, self-determination.”
