Compass of the Dying

When writing of Guyana or islands in the Dutch West Indies, Laurence Lieberman excavates, explores, even exhumes the essence of the place. In the flora and fauna, in the rural cafés and ruins of churches and crypts, in the taste of iguana soup and the look of light through stained glass, Lieberman unfolds an exquisite atlas of the senses. The awe of encounter, the raw impact, beauty, and sometimes the brutality of both the surroundings and the people fuel this poetry. Whether meeting an iguana hunter, a bricklayer, a witness to the United States–led Grenada invasion, or a classical composer, Lieberman gives the reader a vivid combination of his own wit and surprising observations mingled with the speech of each character.