The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts

Zora and Sasha Porter don't know much of their Jamaican father Nigel's and Trinidadian mother Beatrice's pasts. What they do know: the mythic stories of Nigel's flight to America on the string of a purple balloon, the violent histories in Beatrice's book of Anansi Stories, that Nigel had a brother, once, and that Beatrice has a tangle of silvery scars on her back.With their parents' marriage falling apart, the pair navigate their own relationships and secrets - Zora has impure thoughts about a jock, and Sasha drinks cheap beer with a girl who binds her chest.

A celebration of the power of stories, this startling debut presents a tale of slippery contradictions and an examination of the limits of resilience.