A profound exploration of colonialism, from one of the Caribbean’s most powerful literary voices

‘A novel which adds a new dimension to contemporary fiction ... Natives of My Person is above all the story of a voyage … a voyage which as in The Odyssey and Moby Dick penetrates into the very depths of a civilization’ C. L. R. James

In the age of empire, the good ship Reconnaissance sets sail under its murderous Commandant. Yet this is no ordinary expedition for gold and plunder. It is a mission to create a new world in the virgin territories of San Cristobal, a fabled island shrouded in myth and promise. As the perilous voyage unfolds, however, it becomes a mirror of the colonial mind: avaricious, brutish, haunted by death and madness.

With poetic intensity and philosophical depth, this is a novel that journeys far beyond the seas it charts. Through shifting perspectives and a richly layered narrative, Lamming unearths the deep scars of conquest and the personal and political dimensions of empire – its delusions, its violence, and the haunting legacy it leaves behind.

‘One of the great political novels in modern “colonial” literature’ Ngugi wa Thiong’o

"Natives of My Person' is undoubtedly George Lamming's finest novel. It succeeds in illuminating new areas of darkness in the colonial past that the colonizer has so far not dealt with, and in this sense it is a profoundly revolutionary and original work... George Lamming is not so much a novelist as a chronicler of secret journeys to the innermost regions of the West Indian psyche" - New York Times