A Distant Shore

A Distant Shore by Caryl Phillips Knopf, October 2003 $23.95, ISBN 1-400-04109-0

This award-winning writer creates a parallel between the lives of two solitary souls from distinct races and cultures. Dorothy, a white retired school-teacher, crosses paths with Solomon, an African immigrant. Plagued by a painful past and struggling to survive in a tenuous present, each one-displaced and marginalized-instinctively reaches out to "rescue" the other.

In Part 1 of the five-part novel, we first meet Dorothy, who has recently moved into a new housing estate on the outskirts of an English village. She meets and develops a sketchy relationship with Solomon, the night watchman, who also lives on the property. As Dorothy tries to settle into her new home, she confronts the prejudices at the heart of the community.

The author's clever pacing of the novel, through sudden shifts in thought and time sequences, keeps the story intriguing. His use of descriptive detail and subtle symbolism is achingly on point. Phillips, whose literary offerings include Cambridge (Knopf, February 1992), Crossing the River (Knopf, February 1994) and The Final Passage (Faber and Faber, December 1985), was born in St. Kitts and reared in England. He brings to this novel a sensibility that helps the story transcend limitations of time and place.

In style and content, A Distant Shore, set in contemporary England, illustrates that, in the end, it is overall societal prejudices-in any place, in any time-that mar and murder the individual.

[Author Affiliation]

Reviewed by Denolyn Carroll

Denolyn Carroll is assistant managing editor at Essence magazine.