Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jun 2019
290 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Publication Information
An alien ship rests over Water Island. For five years the people of the US Virgin Islands have lived with the Ynaa, a race of superadvanced aliens on a research mission they will not fully disclose.
They are benevolent in many ways but meet any act of aggression with disproportional wrath. This has led to a strained relationship between the Ynaa and the local Virgin Islanders and a peace that cannot last.
A year after the death of a young boy at the hands of an Ynaa, three families find themselves at the center of the inevitable conflict, witness and victim to events that will touch everyone and teach a terrible lesson.
"Turnbull uses a beautifully drawn cast of black characters to convey the complexity of ordinary hardship in extraordinary times. This is an ideal story for fans of Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven and other literary science fiction novels." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A compelling read of an invasive occupation and emotional uprising, Turnbull's debut is a must for all libraries. The author, who crafts speculative stories featuring black characters on par with Octavia Butler, is definitely one to watch." - Library Journal (starred review)
"Turnbull's bold and provocative debut pits aliens against slavers, aliens against the descendants of slaves. On the island of St. Thomas, a family collides with intergalactic meddlers, stranding two lovers with souls in distant worlds. A forbidding panoply of colonial mischief.'' - Kris Lackey, author of Nail's Crossing
"I came for the aliens and a war of the worlds. I stayed for the deadpan St. Thomas humor; the complicated, charming, sexy island folk; and Turnbull's delicious prose. He may not only be a new voice in sci-fi, but also a major new name in Caribbean American literature.'' - Wilton Barnhardt, author of Lookaway, Lookaway
Cadwell Turnbull paints a stunningly intricate portrait of humanity, capturing hopes and dreams, flaws and failings with remarkable depth and texture. The Lesson is a blast to read and a meaningful exploration of the bearing of colonialism and the perils of human ambition.'' - Sylvain Neuvel, author of The Test
This information about The Lesson was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Cadwell Turnbull is a graduate from the North Carolina State University's Creative Writing MFA in Fiction and English MA in Linguistics. He was the winner of the 2014 NCSU Prize for Short Fiction for his story ''Ears'' and attended Clarion West 2016. Turnbull's short stories have been published in Nightmare, Lightspeed, and Asimov's Science Fiction. His Asimov's short story ''When the Rains Come Back'' made Barnes and Noble's Sci-fi & Fantasy Short Fiction Roundup in April 2018. He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts. The Lesson is his first book.
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