My Own Dear People | Dwight Thompson

After witnessing a brutal assault at his elite boys’ school, Nyjah Messado fails to intervene. Years later, the memory follows him back to Montego Bay, where he must confront his complicity and decide whether justice and forgiveness are still possible.

Taut, lyrical and emotionally fearless, this Caribbean novel explores toxic masculinity, colonial legacies, gang violence and the dangers faced by women and LGBTQ communities.

‘An important, beautifully written novel about a young man’s struggle to come to terms with the actions (and inactions) of his own past. This is one of the best books I have read in a long, long time.’ — Jerry Stahl, author of Nein, Nein, Nein!

Dwight Thompson is a Jamaican working in Japan as an English teacher. His work has appeared in the Montego Bay Western Mirror and Caribbean Writer, where he won the Charlotte and Isidor Paiewonsky Prize. One of his stories was also short-listed for a prize in the 2012 Small Axe Literary Competition.