A poignant heart–rending story, shot through with darkness and splinters of grace. Turtle spontaneously asks the ‘new girl’, Farsanna from Sri Lanka, to join the ‘mangy pack’ at the Blue Hole. It’s a sweltering summer in a tiny community in the Deep South—a place where racial tension is a thing of the long–forgotten past decades. Or is it? Turtle’s action is about to bring to the surface poison that has been hiding away for years.Through a combination of naïvety, innocence and a reckless joy in living, Turtle, her brother Em and their friends, LJ, Welp and Jimbo come face to face with the best and the worst of human nature. Supple, beautiful prose. Betrayal, forgiveness and sacrifice make for an unforgettable story. Life is complicated. People are complicated. And yet life is sometimes also simple, and people sometimes can be expected to behave in certain ways. I believe Joy Jordan-Lake has achieved the balance between the complicated and the simple in this book: some things run the course which one expects them to run, but that does not mean that the loose ends which are so inherently part of real life are all tied up. The characters, especially Shelby, have a realness, an honesty to them which one rarely finds in fiction - it made me both laugh and cry in turns as I read - yet this was not the kind of honesty which makes one want to wash your hands of it. 'Blue Hole Back Home' will leave you pondering and mulling and contemplating long after turning the final page.
What do You think about Blue Hole Back Home (2008)?
One of my all-time favourites. Beautiful writing - would love to create something like this one day.
—Paromita
Beautifully written, haunting novel about racism and the shades of courage and cowardice.
—Antonio
