{"product_id":"9780452274839","title":"Abeng","description":"\u003cp\u003eEver since \u003cb\u003eAbeng\u003c\/b\u003e was first published in 1984, Michelle Cliff has steadily become a literary force. Her novels evoke both the clearly delineated hierarchies of colonial Jamaica and the subtleties of present-day island life. Nowhere is her power felt more than in Clare Savage, her Jamaican heroine, who appeared, already grown, in \u003cb\u003eNo Telephone to Heaven\u003c\/b\u003e. \u003cb\u003eAbeng\u003c\/b\u003e is a kind of prequel to that highly-acclaimed novel and is a small masterpiece in its own right. Here Clare is twelve years old, the light-skinned daughter of a middle-class family, growing up among the complex contradictions of class versus color, blood versus history, harsh reality versus delusion, in a colonized country. In language that surrounds us with a richness of meaning and voices, the several strands of young Clare's heritage are explored: the Maroons, who used the conch shell—the abeng—to pass messages as they fought a guerilla struggle against their English enslavers; and the legacy of Clare's white great-great-grandfater, Judge Savage, who burned his hundred slaves on the eve of their emancipation. A lyrical, explosive coming-of-age story combined with a provocative retelling of the colonial history of Jamaica, this novel is a triumph.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47013461721328,"sku":"9780452274839","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780452274839_p0.jpg?v=1763705368","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780452274839","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}