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Reviewed by:
  • Gone to Drift by Diana McCaulay
  • Wesley Jacques
McCaulay, Diana Gone to Drift. Harper/HarperCollins, 2018 [272p]
Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-06-267296-4 $16.99
E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-06-267300-8 $7.99
Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8

When Maas Conrad doesn’t return from his impromptu fishing trip to the Pedro Bank, his grandson, twelve-year-old Lloyd “Lloydie” Saunders, immediately embarks on a determined but foolhardy investigation throughout the south shores of Jamaica—involving the help of marine biologists, going up against dolphin poachers, and stowing away on a coast guard ship—to uncover the fate of his beloved grandfather. Lloyd’s gripping story is complemented by interstitials of Conrad—apparently injured and shipwrecked for days on a rock with dwindling water—reminiscing about his own coming of age as a fisherman from a long line of fishermen. Both grandfather and grandson share a first-hand account of the damaging effects greed and globalization has had on the waters, the fishing industry, and the lives of Jamaicans. With the capable use of patois dialogue, McCaulay, a Jamaican native, builds on what was originally a short story to make a rich tale of working-class life on Caribbean shores that is recognizably contemporary in its economic and environmental concerns, while presenting humanity’s relationship to the sea in thoughtfully timeless ways. When it’s finally revealed that both of Lloyd’s parents had plotted (and failed) to have Maas Conrad killed to ensure that their lucrative dolphin poaching business could continue undisturbed, the heartbreaking realism of this story of innocence lost at sea truly sets this novel apart. [End Page 298]

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