Disaster catapults three children into the careof their Caribbean grandparents, before another relative, elusive and perhapsunstable, makes a conflicting claim to guardianship. Balancing domesticcalamity against her own compulsive writing, Aria faces physical andpsychological threats, as a pandemic creeps up on the world and the countrymoves into lockdown. By Such a Parting Light offers a humorous andpoignant tale of aging and of coming of age, and it takes a mischievousapproach to the multiple meanings of retirement. A must for all readers of Caribbean and islandliterature - for readers with a taste for realism that blends seamlessly intostrains of the marvelous and gothic - the novel's themes of loss andseparation, love and resilience, are universally appealing. The book personalizes local and internationalviolence and terror by bringing it all home to a small country in aninternational context of uncontained infection and catastrophic politics. Turningan astonished eye on developed nations from the frail shelter of a tiny island, the tale unveils alternative notions of civilization and enlightenment.