"The Pirate's Daughter"

Margaret Cezair-Thompson is the author of the widely acclaimed novel, The True History of Paradise. Her other publications include short fiction, essays, and articles in Callaloo, The Washington Post, Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Graham House Review, and Elle. Born in Jamaica, West Indies, she teaches literature and creative writing at Wellesley College.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her latest novel, The Pirate's Daughter, and reported the following:

P. 69 of The Pirate's Daughter, while not the page I'd choose as a sample text, shows a 14 year old Jamaican girl, Ida Joseph, driving through the country side with her father, Eli Joseph, a Lebanese-Jamaican, and the legendary Hollywood actor Errol Flynn. It's the 1940s. Flynn, who has been befriended by Eli Joseph, is building a home in Jamaica. Ida is infatuated with him. On the way they come upon a tragic scene: a young acquaintance of Ida's lying in the road, a hit and run victim. The scene
as a whole, beginning with the drive home to the end of the chapter shows a cross section of Jamaican life and society in this period, from white wealthy expatriates to middle-class colored to poor Black Jamaicans. Readers also see Errol Flynn come alive on the page in conversation with Ida's father, and they will experience Ida's girlhood hopes and concerns.

Read an excerpt from The Pirate's Daughter, and learn more about the novel at the publisher's website.

Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue