The Journey to Le Repentir

Weaving together autobiography, historical narrative, postcolonial voices, and a deeply sensuous ecology of place, this bold and ambitious collection of poems explores four phases of life: childhood; adolescence and young manhood; maturity, and old age. Within each section an intersecting narrative sequence complements, expands, and runs counter to the main voice, creating a complex web of interconnecting themes that stretch throughout the entire work. Moving from the search for the fantastic El Dorado to the celebration of the powerful rivers of Guyana, these poems explore guilt, sexuality, identity, and independence in life and politics.

Mark McWatt is the author of two collections of poetry, Interiors and The Language of Eldorado, and a collection of short stories, Suspended Sentences: Fictions of Atonement, which won first prize in the 2006 Commonwealth Prize. He is also the coeditor of the Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse.