Hungry Ghosts

This is a deeply impressive book, and I think an important one. Its intensity, its narrative attack, the fascinations of its era and setting, make it impossible to tear the attention away. Energy and inventiveness distinguish every page' HILARY MANTEL

The music was still playing when Dalton Changoor vanished into thin air . . .

In rural Trinidad, on a hill overlooking Bell Village sits the Changoor farm. There Dalton and Marlee Changoor live lives of luxury unrecognisable to those who reside in the farm's shadow. Down below, by the river, is the barrack, a ramshackle building of wood and tin, divided into rooms occupied by whole families. Here live the Saroops - Hans and Shweta and their son, Krishna, all three born of the barrack. Theirs are hard lives, of back-breaking work, poverty and devotion to faith.

When Dalton Changoor goes missing and Marlee's safety is compromised, farmhand Hans is lured by the promise of a handsome stipend to move to the farm as watchman. But as the mystery of Dalton's disappearance unfolds their lives become hellishly entwined, and the small community altered forever.

Hungry Ghosts is a mesmerising novel about violence, religion, family and class, rooted in the wild and pastoral landscape of colonial central Trinidad.