The New Moon’s Arms
{4.5/5} “Anybody who work in the sea around Cayaba will buck up one eventually. Fishermen, Coast Guard, Emergency Services. Not the doctors, for the most part. They scarcely do outcalls. Even the police know about this. We all know it. We just don’t talk it. But they real. The sea people? They real.”
The New Moon’s Arms by Nalo Hopkinson, published in 2007
Calamity, formerly known as Chastity, buries her father. She doesn’t want anyone calling her “grandma” or even “mom.” Years ago when she got pregnant at 15 her father didn’t speak to her for a long time. But the last 2 yeas when he was sick, she looked after him. When she was a young girl she once went swimming with a girl with bluish skin. Now a boy washes up on her beach — no boat in sight, and he has bluish skin.
With a main character who gets into all kinds of trouble, it won’t take you long to read this intriguing novel.
It takes place is a fictional Caribbean country called Cayaba. It is a place where the idea that fantastic things are happening seems natural.
It’s about life changes, family, and deciding to make a good choice.
This is the 3rd book I’ve read by Hopkinson. I read her 1st 2 novels some years ago, and particularly enjoyed Brown Girl in the Ring.