Clustered together in azure-blue waters are a collection of islands whose culture, history and people have touched every corner of the world. From the moment Columbus gazed out on what he mistook for India, and wrote in his journal of ‘the most beautiful land that human eyes have ever seen,’ the Caribbean has been the subject to fantasies, myths and daydreams. But these islands are much more than gloss, white sand and palm trees, they form a region rich in colour, beauty and strenght. In the pages of “Island People” we hear the voices of the Caribbean people, explore their home and learn what it means to them, and to the world. In this fascinating and absorbing book, the product of almost a decade of travel and intense study, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro strips away the fantasy and myth to expose the real islands, and the real people, that make up the Caribbean.

“It’s only in and through place – the places that we call home, or the ones to which we want to go – that we figure out who we are.”

Joshua Jelly-Schapiro “Island People: The Caribbean and the World”. Published by Canongate in 2016. Bought by the Sea Library 💙

Photos by Anna Iltnere / Sea Library