A Caribbean anthology to reshape the canon

29 June 2025, The Tablet

Derek Walcott: ‘I met History once but he ain‘t recognise me.’

Stanislav Lvovsky / flickr | Creative Commons

This is a timely punch to literary critics.

Lost and Found: An A-Z of Neglected Writers of the Anglophone Caribbean
ALISON DONNELL
(PAPILOTTE PRESS, 300 PP, £15.99)
TABLET BOOKSHOP PRICE £14.39 • TEL 020 7799 4064

A literary canon is sometimes represented as a sort of sieve, works of genius caught and held while lesser ones drain away. Most of us accept that canons change as they are challenged. Even if some readers prefer to insist that individual taste is all that matters, we still need to find the books to argue over. How do we spot the ones that are missing? Is being a bestseller a book‘s only mark of value?

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