Martin R. Dean

I read this book for my RL book club. It is on the nominated list for this year's Swiss Book Prize.
It's a kind of biography, a journey of discovery by the author when he finds a photo album after the death of his mother. He remembers his mother's words, even if they were only said in passing, because his origins are hushed up in the Swiss Mittelland and especially in his ‘Swiss family’.
His mother was an au pair in London as a very young adult. That's when she met Dean's father and show more became pregnant. Dean was born in Switzerland and shortly afterwards travelled with his parents to Trinidad and Tobago, where his father was from. His father's roots are of Indian descent.
In the first part of the book, Dean talks about his first years in Trinidad. How his mother soon separated from his alcoholic father and how she found work on a sugar plantation. She flees back to Switzerland with her son, her ‘second’ husband in tow, who is also from Trinidad and a doctor. In the second part of the book, the story jumps between exploratory visits by Dean, as an adult, to Trinidad. How he gets to know his extended family and his home in Switzerland, where he lived mainly with his grandparents, who gave him support.
Dean also talks about life as a mixed-race man in Switzerland and keeps coming back to his Indian-Caribbean roots.
It is a very lovingly written book that gives an insight into the different cultures, including slavery over several decades. show less