National Caribbean Heritage Month was established in June 2006 to recognize the significance Caribbean Americans have had on history and culture. Take a look at these books written by Caribbean American authors.

Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat

Danticat came to think of her uncle Joseph, a charismatic pastor, as her “second father” when she was placed in his care at age four when her parents left Haiti for America. So she experiences a jumble of emotions when, at twelve, she joins her parents in New York City, whom she struggles to remember–she has left behind Joseph and the only home she’s ever known. The story of a new life in a new country while fearing for those still in Haiti soon becomes a terrifying tale of good people caught up in events beyond their control. In 2004, his life threatened by a gang, the frail, 81-year-old Joseph makes his way to Miami, where he thinks he will be safe. Instead, he is detained by the Department of Homeland Security, brutally imprisoned, and dead within days. It was a story that made headlines around the world.–From publisher description.

Islandborn by Junot Díaz, illustrated by Leo Espinosa

Lola was just a baby when her family left the Island, so when she has to draw it for a school assignment, she asks her family, friends, and neighbors about their memories of her homeland and in the process, comes up with a new way of understanding her own heritage.

The New Moon’s Arms by Nalo Hopkinson

“A mainstream magical realism novel set in the Caribbean on the fictional island of Dolorosse. It tells the story of a 50-something grandmother whose mother disappeared when she was a teenager and whose father has just passed away as she begins menopause. With this physical change of life comes a return of a special power for finding lost things, something she hasn’t been able to do since childhood”–Provided by publisher.

See Now Then by Jamaica Kincaid

In this novel, a marriage is revealed in all its joys and agonies. A mother, a father, and their two children, living in a small village in New England move, in their own minds, between the present, the past, and the future, constrained by the world, the characters despairing in their domestic situations. But their minds wander, trying to make linear sense of what is, in fact, nonlinear. This is a piercing examination of the manifold ways in which the passing of time operates on the human consciousness.

A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S Naipaul

Owning a small portion of the Trinidad earth and a respectable house of his own is the dream that sustains Mohun Biswas through a life of frustration and despair after he marries into the domineering Tulsi family.

Battle Hill Bolero by Daniel José Older

Trouble is brewing between the Council of the Dead and the ghostly, half-dead, spiritual, and supernatural community they claim to represent. One too many shady deals have gone down in New York City’s streets, and those caught in the cross fires have had enough. It’s time for the Council to be brought down–this time for good. Carlos Delacruz is used to being caught in the middle of things: both as an inbetweener, trapped somewhere between life and death, and as a double agent for the Council. But as his friends begin preparing for an unnatural war against the ghouls in charge, he realizes that more is on the line than ever before–not only for the people he cares about, but for every single soul in Brooklyn, alive or otherwise.

Note: All book covers are from Google Images and all descriptions are from the SHARE Catalog.