Author in Exile

Sharon with her mother, the late Eileen Cox

(Some of) The Sharon Maas story

In a sense I had met her by accident. I had gone to a place in Charlotte street to conduct an interview with a man who had opened an acupuncture facility – that is another story – and had met her there. The man was her son.

She had sat through the interview, patiently, attentively, intervening once or twice; at least that is my recommendation. Afterwards, she had come across to me with a copy of her latest novel, The Sugar Planter’s Daughter (Bookuture, 2016) in her hand and asked whether the newspaper might like to write about it. She said that it was on sale at Austin’s Bookstore and much later, during our subsequent interview, she had said to me that there was a possibility that her publishers might enter the book for the 2016 Guyana Prize for Literature.

After she had introduced herself and told me that The Sugar