Disappearance"A young Afro-Guyanese engineer comes to a coastal Kentish village as part of a project to shore up its crumbling sea-defences. He boards with an old English woman, Mrs Rutherford, and through his relationship with her discovers that beneath the apparent placidity and essential Englishness of this village, violence and raw emotions are not far below the surface, along with echoes of the imperial past. In the process, he is forced to reconsider his perceptions of himself and his native Guyana, and in particular to question his engineer's certainties in the primacy of the empirical and the rational. This novel makes reference to the work of Conrad, Wilson Harris and VS Naipaul to set up a multi-layered dialogue concerning the nature of Englishness, the legacy of Empire and different perspectives on the nature of history and reality."--BOOK JACKET. |
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African appearance asked beach become began believe body break build bush centuries Christie cliff closely cloth continued conversation coolie Curtis didn't disappeared don't drink edge engineer England English everything eyes face father feel feet felt flowers garden gave give glass hand head hear held holding hour human Indian It's Jack Jamal keep kind knew land leave Leroy lives looked machine mean memory mind mother mouth moved never offered once past perhaps piece play presence Professor Fenwick protect question rest returned rocks Rutherford seemed sense soon spent spirits stone stories strange suddenly sure talk tell That's There's things thought told took tree trying turned village voice walked wall watching whole women wondered workers