Castaway

In Castaway Yvette Christians presents an epic yet fragmented poetic story set off the coast of Africa on the island of St. Helena: Napoleon Bonapartes final place of exile, a port of call for the slave trade, and birthplace of the poets grandmother. Amid echoes of racialized identity and issues of displacement, the poems in Castaway speak with a multiplicity of voicesfrom Ferao Lopez (the islands first exile) and Napoleon to that of a contemporary black woman. Castaway is simultaneously a song of discovery, an anthem of conquest, and a tortured lamentation of exiles and slaves. Instead of offering a linear narrative, Christians renders the poems as if they were emerging from the pages of imaginary books, documents now disrupted and scattered. An emperors point of view is juxtaposed with the perspectives of various explorers, sailors, and unknown slaves until finally they all open upon the books castaway, the authorial female voice that negotiates a way to write about love and desire after centuries of oppression and exploitation. Daring and sophisticated, Castaway challenges and captivates the reader with not only its lyrical richness and conceptual depth but also its implicit and haunting reflections on diaspora and postcolonialism. It will be highly regarded by readers and writers of poetry and will appeal to those engaged with issues of race, gender, exile, multiculturalism, colonialism, and history.