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A Novel
by Robert de la Chevotière
From island life in the Caribbean to a new beginning in France, a young man comes of age in a sweeping and lyrical novel about family, loss, secrets, and finding freedom from the past.
Eighteen-year-old Salomon Destin graduates high school and anxiously trades life on Guadeloupe in the Caribbean for France to continue his studies.
Strasbourg is his new home. He's carving out a promising new path for himself. And most of all, he's left behind the disorder of so much family drama, including that of a dissolute father, a mother who turns a blind eye to the chaos, his troubled and aimless brother Junior, and Salomon's inherited obligations as peacekeeper. Although one year away, in love for the first time, and an ocean safely separating his old life and new, Salomon is pulled back to the island by the news of a tragedy. As unexpectedly comforting as Guadeloupe is―the food, music, ocean, and sun stirring up beautiful island memories―the traumas of the past remain.
Years later, while facing the echoes of family demons in his own marriage and confronting the stunning secrets and revelations to come, Salomon, and everyone he loves, must find the strength to move forward once and for all. But will freedom come with a price?
"A deeply moving novel that fearlessly explores the complexities of brotherhood, masculinity, colourism, and what it takes to carve out a good life despite the traumas that follow you. Robert de la Chevotière's writing is luminous and devastatingly magnetic, a mark of a brilliant storyteller we should all keep our eyes on." ―Mai Nguyen, New York Times bestselling author of Sunshine Nails
This information about We Were Not Kings 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.
Robert de la Chevotière always felt that he had a story to tell, be it through poetry, short stories, song, or fiction. His own story is one of migration. Born in Dominica, he and his mother moved to Guadeloupe shortly after Hurricane David crippled the island. Several years later, they moved to Bermuda. In terms of language, customs, music, food, and socioeconomics, the cultural variation gifted Robert with a cross-cultural understanding of places and people. He now calls Halifax, Nova Scotia, home, where he has been an educator in the public school system for nearly twenty years. To Robert, writing is political, the same way it has been transportive and influential in his own awakening. When not writing, reading, or being a hands-on dad, Robert enjoys video calls with his family scattered around the globe, playing soccer, and enjoying all things of his beloved Arsenal FC. For more information, visit www.robdelabooks.com.
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