Prospero's Daughter: A Novel

About this book

A spellbinding new novel from acclaimed author Elizabeth Nunez Prosperos Daughter is a brilliantly conceived retelling of Shakespeares The Tempest set on a lush Caribbean island during the height of tensions between the native population and British colonists. Addressing questions of race class and power it is first and foremost the story of a boy and a girl who come of age and violate the ultimate taboo. Cut off from the main island of Trinidad by a glistening green sea Chacachacare has few inhabitants besides its colony of lepers and a British doctor who fled England with his three-year-old daughter Virginia. An amoral genius Peter Gardner had used his talents to unsavory ends experimenting often with fatal results on unsuspecting patients. Blackmailed by his own brother Peter ends up on the small island as Englands empire is starting to crumble. On Chacachacare Peter experiments chiefly on the wild Caribbean floraand on the dark-skinned orphan Carlos whose home he steals. Though Peter considers the boy no better than a savage he nonetheless schools the child alongside his daughter. But as Carlos and Virginia grow up under the same roof they become deeply and covertly attached to one another. When Peter discovers the pairs secret and accuses Carlos of a heinous crime it is up to a brusque insensitive English inspector to discover the truth. During his investigation a disturbing picture begins to emerge as a monstrous secret is finally drawn into the light.