We cannot list our used books online but we are working on this. Please call us at 404-486-0307 for any used title.
Close this alert
God Carlos
Current price:
$15.95
Publication Date: September 4th, 2012
Publisher:
Akashic Books, Ltd.
ISBN:
9781617751394
Pages:
200
Eagle Eye Book Shop
On hand, as of Apr 19 5:19pm
(Fiction)
On Our Shelves Now
Description
A provocative and persuasive historical novel exploring the Spanish brutality against native Indians in early 16th-century Jamaica.
—Winner of the 2014 Townsend Prize for Fiction
“Darkly irreverent . . . With a sharp tongue, Winkler, a native of Jamaica, deftly imbues this blackly funny satire with an exposé of colonialism’s avarice and futility.” —Publishers Weekly
“Winkler has a fine ear for patois and dialogue, and a love of language that makes bawdy jokes crackle.” —The New Yorker
God Carlos transports us to a voyage aboard the Santa Inez, a Spanish sailing vessel bound for the newly discovered West Indies with a fortune-seeking band of ragtag sailors. She is an unusual explorer for her day, carrying no provisions for the settlers, no seed for planting crops, manned by vain, arrogant men looking for gold in Jamaica.
Expecting to make a landfall in paradise after over a month at sea, the crew of the Santa Inez instead find themselves in the middle of a timid, innocent people—the Arawaks—who walk around stark naked without embarrassment and who venerate their own customs and worship their own gods and creeds. The European newcomers do not find gold, only the merciless climate that nourishes diseases that slaughter them. The Arawaks’ belief that the European arrivals were from heaven further complicates this impossible entanglement of culture, custom, and beliefs, ultimately leading to mutual doom.
Praise for God Carlos
A gusty, boisterous, and entertaining slice of historical fiction. In scenes of a mixture of pride, madness, and comedy, Carlos plays out his role as deity among the naked islanders, living a fantasy that most readers will find believable, if horrific. Along with the horror, the book does offer some beautiful moments of discovery, as when, as Winkler narrates, the ship takes the Mona Passage to Jamaica . . . we hear of an Edenic island, green and aromatic, opened like a wildflower. For all of its scenes of braggadocio and brutality, the book often works on you like that vision.
— Alan Cheuse, of All Things Considered, NPR
Readers are transported along to Jamaica, in Winkler’s richly invented 16th century, where his flawless prose paints their slice of time, in turn both brutally graphic and lyrically gorgeous. Verdict: Comic, tragic, bawdy, sad, and provocative, this is a thoroughly engaging adventure story from renowned Jamaican author Winkler, sure to enchant readers who treasure a fabulous tale exquisitely rendered.
— Library Journal
A tale of the frequently tragic—and also comic—clash of races and religions brought on by colonization . . . Anthony Winkler spins an enlightening parable, rich in historical detail and irony.
— Shelf Awareness
With perceptive storytelling and bracing honesty, Mr. Winkler, author of a half-dozen well-reviewed books, has a lovely way of telling a good story and educating concurrently . . . God Carlos teaches history in a subtle but meaningful way. Too literary to be lumped in with typical historical fiction, and too historical to be lumped in with typical literary fiction, God Carlos defies categorization.
— New York Journal of Books
Every country (if she’s lucky) gets the Mark Twain she deserves, and Winkler is ours, bristling with savage Jamaican wit, heart-stopping compassion, and jaw-dropping humor all at once.
— Marlon James, author of The Book of Night Women
