In this episode, first-time novelist Carol Mitchell discusses the ideas and experiences out of which grew this novel, What Start Bad A Mornin’.

The story she tells us of Amaya Lin, a Jamaican living and working in the United States, who is leaving the office where she works with her lawyer husband and his partner, rushing off to gather in her elderly aunt for the evening, when a younger woman approaches Amaya’s car, saying she is Amaya’s sister.

But Amaya thinks that is not possible. Since she was 17, she has had no family other than after she married - her husband and their son.

Why would this woman say that? Who was she really? She did have a familiar look, but, still—

Thus is Amaya - launched onto a journey into her past, a past she had forgotten, or suppressed. This is the novel Carol spins for readers, weaving three narrative lines through the U.S., Jamaica and Trinidad—the immigration experience; the challenge of constructing a successful life in a complex, sometimes tragic world; experiences of loss and rediscovery.

Hosted by William Miller

“I wanted to write a woman who wasn’t perfect. Who didn’t know everything. Who had to go back and recover parts of herself she didn’t even know she’d lost.” – Carol Mitchell

#CaribbeanFiction

#WhatStartBadAMornin

#WomenWhoWrite

Find out more about Carol on her website: https://carolmitchellbooks.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/writewithcarol/?hl=en

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