In the Castle of My Skin

This book was mandatory reading for most of us going to the Caribbean in secondary school.

For that reason, it may elicit a groan from those who have less than pleasant memories of school-enforced reading. But for me, it really was the first time I remember reading a book set in my home country of Barbados.

It’s a heart-warming coming-of-age story that takes you back and makes you wish for the good old days.

This work brilliantly puts the literary motif of ‘coming of age’ into a Caribbean context. It was set in the 1930s-40s. Novels which concentrate in depth on a specific period are highly beneficial to a reader’s sense of historical perspective. Stylistically, I very much appreciate its combination of first-person and third-person narration. In the Castle of My Skin tells the story of the mundane events in a young boy’s life that take place amid dramatic changes in the village and society in which he lives. The novel uses modernist devices such as shifting perspectives and unreliable narration to recount the… show more.