Books for Caribbean-American Heritage Month

By Coll Rowe | May 31 2023 | Caribbean-American Heritage Month

We are celebrating Caribbean American Heritage Month with books by Caribbean and Caribbean-American authors, while recognizing the significance of the community’s influence on the history and culture of the United States. This book list includes fiction, memoir, narrative nonfiction, and history that illuminate and give insight into the community’s contributions and impact through individual lives and voices.

When We Were Birds
When We Were Birds
A Novel
Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
978-0-593-31361-9
When We Were Birds is a mythic love story set in Trinidad, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s radiant debut is a masterwork of lush imagination and exuberant storytelling—a spellbinding and hopeful novel about inheritance, loss, and love's seismic power to heal.
$17.00 US
Feb 14, 2023
Paperback
304 Pages
Anchor
Black American Refugee
Black American Refugee
Escaping the Narcissism of the American Dream
Tiffanie Drayton
978-0-593-29854-1
"Drayton explores the ramifications of racism that span generations, global white supremacy, and the pitfalls of American culture."—Shondaland
$26.00 US
Feb 15, 2022
Hardcover
304 Pages
Viking
Dominicana
Dominicana
Angie Cruz
978-1-64421-070-3
Una extraordinaria novela de iniciación sobre una mujer joven que encuentra su voz en el mundo ahora en una edición en Español. / An extraordinary coming-of-age story of a young woman finding her voice in the world, now in a Spanish language edition. 
$18.95 US
Jun 15, 2021
Paperback
400 Pages
Siete Cuentos
The Cubans
The Cubans
Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times
Anthony DePalma
978-0-525-52246-1
Modern Cuba comes alive in a vibrant portrait of a group of families's varied journeys in one community over the last twenty years.
$18.00 US
May 25, 2021
Paperback
368 Pages
Penguin Books
Breath, Eyes, Memory
Breath, Eyes, Memory
Edwidge Danticat
978-1-56947-796-0
At the age of twelve, Sophie Caco is sent from her impoverished village of Croix-des-Rosets to New York, to be reunited with a mother she barely remembers. There she discovers secrets that no child should ever know, and a legacy of shame that can be healed only when she returns to Haiti--to the women who first reared her. What ensues is a passionate journey through a landscape charged with the supernatural and scarred by political violence, in a novel that bears witness to the traditions, suffering, and wisdom of an entire people.
$9.99 US
Jul 01, 2003
Ebook
288 Pages
Soho Press
Island People
Island People
The Caribbean and the World
Joshua Jelly-Schapiro
978-0-345-80499-0
This masterwork of travel literature and history provides a kaleidoscopic portrait of the Caribbean and illuminates its fierce grip on the world's imagination.
$17.00 US
Nov 28, 2017
Paperback
512 Pages
Vintage
Finding Manana
Finding Manana
A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus
Mirta Ojito
978-0-14-303660-9
Finding Mañana is a vibrant, moving memoir of one family's life in Cuba and their wrenching departure.
$17.00 US
Apr 04, 2006
Paperback
320 Pages
Penguin Books
The Farming of Bones
The Farming of Bones
Edwidge Danticat
978-1-61695-349-2
A New York Times Notable Book
$17.00 US
May 07, 2013
Paperback
336 Pages
Soho Press
Brother, I'm Dying
Brother, I'm Dying
Edwidge Danticat
978-1-4000-3430-7
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award
$17.00 US
Sep 09, 2008
Paperback
288 Pages
Vintage
Krik? Krak!
Krik? Krak!
Edwidge Danticat
978-1-61695-700-1
Edwidge Danticat's only short story collection returns to Soho in a gorgeous 20th anniversary edition--complete with a new story!
$16.00 US
Dec 15, 2015
Paperback
264 Pages
Soho Press
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