Tide Running (Paperback, 1st Beacon Press ed)

Cliff and Ossi have grown up in Plymouth on the island of Tobago, their lives turning on the axis of small-town life. One day they watch the arrival of a couple and their child at a luxurious house overlooking the ocean. The couple invites Cliff into their home and lives, and in that cool "flim-style" house, the harsh, brittle life of urban Plymouth is kept briefly at bay, desires obscuring differences in class and race. But then things begin to go wrong--money vanishes, the couple's car disappears--and those differences are brought suddenly to light, raising unsettling questions about relationships, wealth, and responsibility.
"Oonya Kempadoo's Tide Running is effective, beautiful, and haunting . . . and pulses with a distinctive Caribbean rhythm." --Glenville Lovell, Washington Post
"With a finely tuned ear for the cadences of the Caribbean . . .. Kempadoo succeeds in turning an unsettling tale into an exploration of the global politics of desire." --The New Yorker
"A vividly imagined [tale] by this poetically gifted, politically incisive young Caribbean writer." --Elle magazine