Free At the Bottom of the River by Jamaica Kincaid

Indian writers, only Kincaid so precisely conveys the dual texture of the smaller islands: the translucent overlay of colonial British culture upon people and places so absolutely alien to England. Gently, she peels back the fragile tissues of religion, vocabulary and manners to expose the vibrant life beneath the imported, imposed customs.”
    â€”Elaine Kendall, Los Angeles Times Book Review
    â€œJamaica Kincaid’s first book of short stories … plunges us into the strange, magical, shifting world of childhood in the West Indies … These pieces are … full of brilliant colors, magical symbols, secret feelings and tropical scenery.”
    â€”Roxana Robinson, The Philadelphia Inquirer
    â€œShe is a consummate balancer of feeling and craft. She takes no short or long cuts, breathes no windy pomposities: she contents herself with being direct … So lush, composed, direct, odd, sharp, and brilliantly lit are Kincaid’s word paintings that the reader’s presuppositions are cut in two by her seemingly soft edges.”
    â€”Jacqueline Austin, Voice Literary Supplement
    â€œWhat Kincaid has to tell us, she tells, with her singsong style, in a series of images that are as sweet and mysterious as the secrets that children whisper in your ear.”
    â€”Suzanne Freeman, Ms.

J AMAICA K INCAID
At the Bottom of the River
    J AMAICA K INCAID was born in St. John’s, Antigua. Her books include Annie John, A Small Place, Lucy, The Autobiography of My Mother, My Brother, My Favorite Plant (editor), and My Garden (Book). She lives with her family in Vermont, and she teaches at Harvard University.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux
    18 West 18th Street, New York 10011
    Copyright © 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983 by Jamaica Kincaid
    All rights reserved
    First published in 1983 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
    First Farrar, Straus and Giroux paperback edition, 2000
    Grateful acknowledgment is made to The New Yorker for the following stories, which first appeared in its pages: “Girl,” “In the Night,” “At Last,” “Wingless,” “Holidays,” “The Letter from Home,” and “At the Bottom of the River,” and to The Paris Review for “What I Have Been Doing Lately.”
    The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
    Kincaid, Jamaica.
    Â Â Â Â At the bottom of the river / Jamaica Kincaid.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â p. cm.
    Â Â Â Â Contents: Girl—In the night—At last—[etc.]
    Â Â Â Â ISBN-13: 978-0-374-10660-7
    Â Â Â Â ISBN-10: 0-374-10660-6
    Â Â Â Â I. Title.
    PS3561.I425A93
    813'.54
    83–16445
    Paperback ISBN-13: 978-0-374-52734-1
    Paperback ISBN-10: 0-374-52734-2
    www.fsgbooks.com
    eISBN 9781466837799
    First eBook edition: January 2013