Shiv­a­nee Ram­lochan

It's been a re­ward­ing, di­verse, rich year of read­ing. I'm al­ready look­ing for­ward to 2014 re­leas­es from Tiphanie Yanique, Han­nah Lowe and T&T Guardian colum­nist An­ge­lo Bisses­sars­ingh. In the same breath, I'm pleased to share my picks for the best Caribbean and Caribbean di­as­po­ra ti­tles of 2013.

His­tor­i­cal Fic­tion: As Flies to What­less Boys by Robert An­toni (Akashic Books)

Co­in­ci­den­tal­ly the last book I've re­viewed in full for the Guardian this year, I'm not pick­ing An­toni's fourth nov­el be­cause it's fresh on the radar. I turn to What­less Boys be­cause it's burst­ing at the seams with play­ful en­ve­lope-push­ing. Stretch­ing the lim­its of com­fort­able, tidy fic­tion, this nov­el sees his­to­ry trans­mut­ed, trans­fixed and, ul­ti­mate­ly, tran­scen­dent of the genre's some­times stodgy bor­ders. As Flies to What­less Boys kept me up nights, not nec­es­sar­i­ly be­cause I was em­broiled in sus­pense, but be­cause of the sheer plea­sures of the jour­ney it­self. Here's what's true about this nov­el: it makes some fair­ly as­ton­ish­ing wa­gers, and then cash­es them all in with can­dour, clar­i­ty, and more laugh­ter than you'd ex­pect to fill your sails.

Non-Fic­tion: Wish­ing for Wings by Deb­bie Ja­cob (Ian Ran­dle Pub­lish­ers)

Some­times you'll chance up­on a book that's so pow­er­ful, while be­ing so si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly sim­ple, that the best word for it is trans­for­ma­tive. Don't be cyn­i­cal­ly de­terred: "sim­ple" isn't a bad word for these sto­ries from T&T Guardian colum­nist Deb­bie Ja­cob's Youth Train­ing Cen­tre in­mates. These tales are so clean­ly, so ef­fi­cient­ly de­liv­ered, that they cut through even the flinti­est and most Scro­ogy of hearts. This is a book for un­apolo­getic cry­ing ses­sions; for an­i­mat­ed con­ver­sa­tions with best friends and work col­leagues; for sec­ondary school li­braries; for press­ing in­to a dis­il­lu­sioned teenag­er's hands and plead­ing, "Read".If you haven't yet, read­ing Wish­ing for Wings could be one of the most im­por­tant things you do with the year's swift­ly dwin­dling hours.

Self-Pub­lished: Be­tween Bod­ies Lie by HM Blanc

I'm not alone in this es­ti­ma­tion: Blanc's de­but nov­el was re­cent­ly se­lect­ed as one of Kirkus Re­views' Best In­die Books of 2013. What's laud­able about this sen­su­ous first for­ay in­to fic­tion is that the writ­ing goes for the emo­tion­al jugu­lar. It's about twist­ed ro­mances at their best (and in the same vein, their worst): com­pelling, laced with bac­cha­nal and hys­te­ria, as dif­fi­cult to quit as a fever in its suf­fo­cat­ing prime. In his pro­tag­o­nist, world-weary vis­i­tor to the Caribbean, Cristo­bal Porter, Blanc crafts a be­liev­able an­ti-hero.Nev­er de­mand­ing that we like Cristo­bal's streaks of nar­cis­sis­tic chau­vin­ism, the writer serves up an el­e­gant­ly con­struct­ed an­ti-moral­i­ty tale best served with wine and re­mem­bered re­grets. It's well worth wait­ing to see what Blanc next pro­duces on the page.

Po­et­ry: Pep­per Seed by Ma­li­ka Book­er (Peepal Tree Press)

With Peepal Tree Press's stel­lar track record–re­leas­ing sev­er­al for­mi­da­ble po­et­ry ti­tles this year alone–it's not a won­der that my po­et­ry pick comes from their cat­a­logue. It's been Ma­li­ka Book­er's po­ems that I've re­turned to most, since de­vour­ing Pep­per Seed in one sit­ting. These vers­es are primed for get­ting be­neath your skin. They are in­tu­itive, in the best ways, about the his­to­ries and sex­u­al­i­ties of Caribbean women, about the pow­er and ter­ror caught up in fe­male beau­ty.As with the best po­ems, the se­lec­tions in Pep­per Seed ac­quire even stronger sig­nif­i­cance when read aloud. They are for shar­ing with every sin­gle woman you love and es­teem. They are tri­umphant odes to the mys­ter­ies and dai­ly chal­lenges of be­ing a woman in the here and now.

Chil­dren's Fic­tion: Lit­tle­town Se­crets by K Jared Ho­sein (Pot­bake Pro­duc­tions)

In No­vem­ber, I lis­tened to Ho­sein read pas­sages from a sto­ry in Lit­tle­town Se­crets to the Nigel R Khan au­di­ence in Mid Cen­tre Mall. (The event was part of the Bo­cas Lit Fest's South and Cen­tral mi­ni-fes­ti­val.) As the chil­dren in the au­di­ence gig­gled and gasped in equal parts amuse­ment and awe, I was re­mind­ed of what good writ­ing for young peo­ple can do.Ho­sein's book is pop­u­lat­ed with imps, ghosts and satyrs, but its con­cerns are re­as­sur­ing­ly, es­sen­tial­ly hu­man. These sto­ries are more than mere bed­time para­bles: they hold their own against some of the best adult nar­ra­tives, when mea­sured by the im­pact and en­durance of the mes­sages they con­vey.

�2 Shiv­a­nee Ram­lochan is a po­et and fic­tion writer. She reg­u­lar­ly re­views books for the Sun­day Arts Sec­tion.