Awards
2008 Essence Literary Award Best Fiction
Synopses & Reviews
In 1946, a storm-wrecked boat carrying Hollywood's most famous swashbuckler arrived dramatically and accidentally in Jamaica, and the glamorous world of 1940s Hollywood converged with that of a small West Indian society. After a long and storied career on the silver screen, Errol Flynn spent much of the last years of his life on a small island off of Jamaica, throwing parties and sleeping with increasingly younger girls. Based on those years,
The Pirate's Daughter is the story of Ida, a local girl who has an affair with Flynn that produces a daughter, May, who meets her father but once.
Spanning two gererations of women whose destinies become inextricably linked with the Holly wood star, The Pirate's Daughter tells the provocative history of a vanished era, of uncommon kinships, compelling attachments, betrayal, and atonement in a paradisal, tropical setting. May, the illegitimate daughter of Errol Flynn, belongs neither to the emerging black nation of Jamaica nor to the white, expatriate society on the island. Her mother, Ida, romantically adventurous, dreams of a bigger more glamorous world than that of her small seaside town. For them both, trying to find the right way to live their lives is about discovering who they are and where they truly belong.
As adept with Jamaican vernacular as she is at revealing the internal machinations of a fading and bloated matinee idol, in this culturally sensitive and delightful novel, Margaret Cezair-Thompson weaves a saga of a mother and daughter finding their way in a nation struggling to rise to the challenge of independence.
Review
"Cezair-Thompson deftly walks the high wire between literary and pop fiction, melding romance and politics in this novel that reimagines Errol Flynn's sojourn in Jamaica near the end of his career." Chauncey Mabe, the National Book Critics Circle's Most Recommended list, winter 2008
Review
"Cezair-Thompson mixes Jamaican history with 1950s glamour to tell the story of two young women of mixed race trying to find their place in a rapidly changing country....The Pirate's Daughter provides the kind of full-bodied yarn ideal for readers looking to be swept away." The Christian Science Monitor
Review
"[C]onjures the collision of old Hollywood glamour and freshly minted West Indian society....[A]n unabashedly frangipani-scented-and wholly satisfying armchair holiday of a read." Vogue
Review
"[A] lush, lovely fairy tale filled with obvious love for the characters, history, and place, rendered in faultless prose and patois. The feel of this novel is of Gone with the Wind in Jamaica...full to the bursting with romantic adventure and epic scope." School Library Journal
Review
"The sensual descriptions, engaging dialect and captivating characters make The Pirate's Daughter a book that will stay with me. It is an elegantly written saga of love and loss, betrayal and survival, but most of all it is a glimpse at the fragile nature of the human heart." BookReporter.com
Review
"The Pirate's Daughter is the best kind of middle-brow fiction, neither pandering nor elitist, and not least of its charms is the desire to visit Jamaica that it will inspire in many of its readers." South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Review
"[Cezair-Thompson is] best at juxtaposing Flynn's imported glamour with the realities of Jamaica and at suggesting there's more than one kind of buried treasure....The Pirate's Daughter offers plenty of serious passion and escape." USA Today
Synopsis
"Back in America, little was known of my life in Jamaica," wrote Errol Flynn.
In 1946, a storm-wrecked boat carrying Hollywood's most famous swashbuckler shored up on the coast of Jamaica, and the glamorous world of 1940's Hollywood converged with that of a small West Indian society. After a long and storied career on the silver screen, Errol Flynn spent much of the last years of his life on a small island off of Jamaica, throwing parties and sleeping with increasingly younger teenaged girls. Based on those years, The Pirate's Daughter is the story of Ida, a local girl who has an affair with Flynn that produces a daughter, May, who meets her father but once.
Spanning two generations of women whose destinies become inextricably linked with the matinee idol's, this lively novel tells the provocative history of a vanished era, of uncommon kinships, compelling attachments, betrayal and atonement in a paradisal, tropical setting. As adept with Jamaican vernacular as she is at revealing the internal machinations of a fading and bloated matinee idol, Margaret Cezair-Thompson weaves a saga of a mother and daughter finding their way in a nation struggling to rise to the challenge of independence.
Synopsis
After a long and storied career on the silver screen, Errol Flynn spends much of the last years of his life on a small island off of Jamaica. Based on those years, this novel tells the story a local girl whose affair with Flynn produces a daughter, as it delves into the provocative history of a vanished era.
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About the Author
Margaret Cezair-Thompson is the author of a widely acclaimed previous novel The True History of Paradise. Born in Jamaica, West Indies, she teaches literature and creative writing at Wellesley College.