Ever Since We Small - by Celeste Mohammed (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

An intricately woven tapestry of stories where survival, resilience and self-discovery are passed down through several generations of an Indo-Trinidadian family, Ever Since We Small is a sweeping epic that takes us from the days of the British Raj in India to multicultural modern Trinidad.

Written in a blend of Standard English and several flavors of Trinidad kriol, Ever Since We Small follows the bloodline of a young woman, Jayanti, following her decision to become a girmitiya, an indentured laborer in the Caribbean. The generational after-effects of this decision are seen in the lives of Jayanti's grandson, Lall, who seeks to escape the rural village where he was born, but instead becomes seduced and corrupted by urban life, and sis son, Shiva, who is forced to take a child-bride, Salma, but never recovers from the guilt. Heartache then follows for their three children, who must each find a way to accept and yet move past their parents' failed example.

Along the journey of these ten interconnected stories, the alchemy necessary to turn the family's inheritance of pain into a "generation of gold" requires intervention by the living and dead, the "real" and the mythical, the mundane and the magical, the secular and the sacred.

Review Quotes

"Mohammed beautifully captures the rhythm and music of Trinidadian patois...Readers will be deeply affected."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Drawing upon both historical realities and folkloric tradition, Ever Since We Small is a compelling novel built on a
tapestry of fractured legacies and spectacular resilience."--Foreword (starred review)

"Celeste Mohammed's sophomore offering, Ever Since We Small, is an astonishing accomplishment. This slender, yet epic tale spans generations of an Indo-Trinidadian family and serves as a timely indictment of the legacy of colonialism in the Caribbean. It is a critical and necessary book for those interested in understanding how the past wrestles with our present moment, and why hope is our most transcendental inheritance."--Cleyvis Natera, award-winning author of Neruda on the Park and The Grand Paloma Resort

"Ever Since We Small raises powerful nuanced questions: What does it mean to carry forward the memory of a people? Where does duty end and desire begin? And how do women shape their own lives in the shadows of history? This is a book about many things, foremost among them a tale of lives bound by blood and silence, a story that unearths the emotional aftermath of tragedies, threading it with the intimate, often unspoken realities of motherhood, longing, and survival. A sweeping, necessary novel on what it means to be human."--Krystal A. Sital, author of Secrets We Kept: Three Women of Trinidad

"In this intimate exploration of voices and pain, Celeste Mohammed weaves all of the complexities and contradictions of Indo-Caribbean identity and expression into some unforgettable characters. Through generations of loss and gain we are carried along in language as varied and important as the span of time and influences themselves. Ultimately enriched. Ever Since We Small wraps truths and trauma with loving care."--Oonya Kempadoo, winner of the 2024 Guyana Prize for Literature, past winner of the Casa de las Américas Prize

"Let us allow that the rich, ripe language of Celeste Mohammed's ten narrative stories is an innovative kind of brilliant poetic rendering, and say that Ever Since We Small is an epic work that fleshes out and completes Harold Sonny Ladoo's No Pain Like this Body. She has accomplished the portrayal of a legacy of drama begun, in this case, with one woman's Kala Pani crossing and worked through generations, culminating in the unique and too-real racial complexities of a Caribbean present. Her empathetic handling of voice and crystal-clear imagery speak of a writer we must watch closely and treasure."--Shani Mootoo, author of Oh Witness Dey! and Polar Vortex

"Ever Since We Small is searing family saga rooted in Indenture and its postcolonial fallout. Destitution, family dynamics, substance abuse all swirl around together to present a hard and unflinching look at one family's generational struggles through bondage into the decolonization and neocolonization of Trinidad and Tobago. I am amazed by the research into the languages and multiple ethnic and linguistic heritages of T&T, handled with grace and expertise. Celeste Mohammed is a writer with the feminist magic of beholding many generations in a single glance. I have needed this book for years."--Rajiv Mohabir, author of Seabeast and Antiman: A Hybrid Memoir