The Dragon Can T Dance

'A landmark, not in the West Indian, but in the contemporary novel.' C. L. R. James 'First-class talent.' The Voice Trinidad, 1970s. Calvary Hill - poverty stricken and rubbish-strewn - is home to a community of people who come together during the joyful yearly town Carnival, becoming larger-than-life versions of themselves. But when it ends, and the strains of day-to-day life grow large, what happens to the peoples' hopes, and the feeling that 'all o' we is one'? With an unforgettable cast of characters, The Dragon Can't Dance is a stunning, classic novel of the desire for identity and belonging, alongside the legacies of a colonial past.

The Longman Caribbean Writers Series comprises of many classic novels, short stories and plays by the best known Caribbean authors, together with works of the highest quality from new writers.

Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize 'An amazingly vivid and joyful novel.' The Times 'Vital, life-enhancing.' Time Out Alford, the youngest son of a poor farm worker, has risen above his class to become a schoolteacher. He, like many young people in Trinidad, dreams of heading to England for a better life. Idealistic and determined, Alford travels to the capital to campaign for his community and, suddenly a local hero, it seems anything is possible. Or is it? Salt tells the story of a country through an unforgettable cast of characters, striving with wit and passion to make sense of life in an evolving homeland.

Katie Woo is excited to go a to a special daddy-daughter dance. There's only one problem. Katie's dad keeps stepping on her toes. Can Katie help her daddy with his dance moves? With reader questions, a glossary, an activity, this book is a great choice for libraries.

It is the eve of Chinese New Year. Lanterns are hung in the shopping malls and Yao is preparing to wake the ancient sky dragon, Shen Long, from his year-long sleep. From the moment Shen Long opens his great amber eyes and unfurls his silver-blue tail, Yao will be propelled on a magical journey to battle the bad luck of the previous year and usher in the good. Will he succeed? Will his grandfather watch over him and protect him from harm? A beautiful story of a Chinese festival and its symbolism for Chinese communities everywhere.

Charts the history of a Spiritual Baptist community from the passing of the Prohibition Ordinance in 1917 until the lifting of the ban in 1951.

A “funny, moving, endlessly inventive” novel of life in a Trinidadian town during a time of change and revolutionary fervor (The Times). In Trinidad, in the wake of 1970’s Black Power Uprising, we follow Sonnyboy, Singer King Kala, and their town’s folk through experiments in music, politics, religion, and love—and in their day-to-day adventures. Humorous and serious, sad and uplifting, Is Just a Movie is a radiant novel about small moments of magic in ordinary life. “Earl Lovelace is arguably the Caribbean’s greatest living novelist. In Is Just a Movie, he writes at the top of his considerable literary powers, picturing the Caribbean’s poor and powerless defending their ever-embattled humanity with resourcefulness and tenacity.” —Randall Robinson, author of The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks “Lovelace is bursting with things to say about this complex, heterogeneous society in the late twentieth century . . . with a flair that at its best reaches a soaring rhapsody.” —Guardian “Is Just a Movie is not just a movie, it’s a poem, too.” —Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things “Confirms Lovelace as a master storyteller of the West Indies.” —Financial Times “Starring two hapless almost-beens in search of movie fame, Is Just A Movie takes us on wild loving absurdist journey to the heart of a contemporary Trinidad.” —Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao “Vivid prose that seems to stroll effortlessly across the page.” —The Times Literary Supplement Winner of the Regional Council of Guadeloupe’s Grand Prize for Caribbean Literature