Pynter Bender (Available Now HERE !)
Published by 4th Estate/Harper Collins
ISBN-10: 0007222971
ISBN-13: 978-0007222971

Families have their own histories and superstitions. They carry tales, experiences, and memories through the generations. When Pynter Bender is born fully two days after his twin brother Peter, he is temporarily blinded by a caul over his face, and carries with him three hundred years of Bender family myth. The people of the village of Old Hope, and especially his aunts and grandmother, are convinced that Pynter is  a spirit child, who has sneaked into the world behind his brother, carrying within him the ghost of his ancestor Zed Bender. Spirit children are not meant to live beyond a certain age - Pynter is born to die. They say he will have to cross the ocean to lift the curse.

Even after his vision has been restored, the occasional and accidental discoveries of his childhood do not fully reveal to Pynter the mysteries of his own family. As he grows, however, life in the sugarcane belts of Grenada is changing, implicated in the global mood of political unrest and protest of the Fifties and Sixties. Pynter’s destiny as the vessel of Bender family history will be subsumed by his role in the terror of the pre-Independence struggles on the island. But still he has his journey to make.
Strikingly rich in language and imagery, Ross’s debut novel is a dramatic tale of love and violence.

‘Pynter Bender is so beautifully profound. It is strange and otherworldly. It has the narrative power and seamless  craft of a masterpiece. It is a book for all time.’ Bernardine Evaristo [MORE REVIEWS]