Armstrong, T: Of Water & Rock

Of Water and Rock derives its power from the basic human need for connectedness and belonging. When Torontonian Edward Hamblin steps off the plane in Barbados, in the winter of 1969, he crosses more than the tarmac at Seawell Airport. As he navigates the island's racial and cultural boundaries, he leaves behind an empty life of comfort and discovers a vibrant world of simple beauty, an undiscovered family, and reconciliation with the memory of a long dead father. Powerful converging themes give the novel an emotional strength: Edward Hamblin's immesion into the post-colonial culture of Barbados; his unresolved animosity towards his long dead Barbadian father who deserted his family when he was young; the poor black peasant farmer, Sissy Braithwaite, and her unrequited love for an abandoned daughter; the wealthy white Mary Collymore's disconnected life of privilege and racial intolerance. After Sissy's death, when Edward discovers his Great Aunt's diary, the apparently disconnected threads are drawn together. As well as revealing the true relationships between the protagonists, Edward hears his father's voice, comes to understand and pity the man that he has for so long despised, and resolves to unite his newly discovered family in a way his father never could.