THE HOUSE OF PLAIN TRUTH

After living in Brooklyn for more than 30 years, a woman returns to her childhood home in Jamaica.

At 93, Rupert Greaves is not long for this world, and Pearline, his 60-something daughter, has returned to her childhood home to be by his side in his final days. In the U.S., Pearline is still viewed as an outsider, a “resident alien” after three decades, and she hopes to find a sense of belonging in her homeland. She soon learns the hard truth that returning home is far from easy. “Sometimes she feels herself trying too hard...a feeling that she’s performing Jamaicanness.” Her sisters, Aileen and Hermina, see her as an interloper who’s been away too long to know the problems they face; young Claudia—the child of her father’s caretaker—has become her temporary responsibility. And then there’s the matter of her father’s baffling final wish. For the past 60 years, Rupert has refused to acknowledge the three adult children who stayed behind when the family returned to Jamaica from Cuba (as well as another who died as a child). His deathbed wish—“Find them for me. You are my memory now”—goes unheeded by her sisters, who want to sell the family land and wash their hands of it, but for Pearline, this responsibility weighs heavy. Despite Rupert’s charge, much of the novel is more a literary exploration of grief, family schisms, and belonging than a search for missing siblings. Fractured memories and dreams of the past infuse this unassuming story with a rich and elusive history spanning three countries, and they depict a family that’s more orchard than tree. The novel’s sedate pacing, which evokes rocking-chair musings on mortality and responsibility, brings a welcome reprieve from stories laden with plot twists and action for the sake of it.

Hemans’ thoughtful family tale is a balm for readers.