An unnamed narrator in 1960s London reflects on three periods of his
life in Guyana which altered his understanding of the world. In 1948 he
witnesses a march of workers protesting the killing of their comrades by
police during a bitter strike; and so begins a radical revision of
Wordsworth's strategy of exploring imagination, memory and event in The
Prelude.
Harris challenges the reader by removing the props of linear narrative
and conventional characterisation, offering in their place a Proustian
richness of sensuous associations - proof positive of his status as one
of the Caribbean's most original and visionary writers.
Wilson Harris was born in Guyana in 1921. Resident in the UK since
1959, since his retirement he has been in demand as visiting professor
and writer in residence at many leading universities. He has twice won
the Guyana Prize for Literature. In 2010 he was knighted in 2010 for his
services to literature.