Following her parents’ divorce, fifteen year-old Leigh McCaulay left Jamaica for New York City. Fifteen years later, after her mother’s death she returns to the island, in its 50th year of independence, to find her estranged father and the family secrets he holds. Back home, but a white Jamaican in a black Jamaica, she struggles to come to terms with her family’s part in the slave-trade.
Loosely based on the author’s own family history, Huracan explores how we navigate the inequalities and privileges of birth and the possibilities for life, connectedness and social transformation in modern everyday life. But it is also the story of an island’s independence; of the people who came and those who were conquered; of crime and acts of mercy; of the search for place, love and redemption.
Diana McCaulay has lived in Jamaica her entire life. Her first novel, Dog-Heart, was the winner of a Jamaican National Literature award, longlisted for the Dublin IMPAC award and shortlisted for several other prizes in 2011; it was Peepal Tree Press’s bestselling title of 2010.