Center for Fiction First Novel Prize - Longlist
Wynston Cleave, a black taxi driver on a small Caribbean island, spent years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of the death of a wealthy white tourist. Finally released, he tries to piece his life together working as a bartender and reading literary classics to the unruly cockroaches infesting his taxi.
On the anniversary of his arrest, Wynston picks up two white Americans just kicked off a cruise ship. The next day, the ship reports a deadly viral outbreak. As the tourist economy collapses, the island succumbs to riots and a devastating spiral of violence, and Wynston's fate becomes entwined with that of three strangers: his American passengers and a local named Tremor, the focus of a vicious police manhunt.
Narrated by the sharp-witted roaches infesting Wynston's taxi, The Wonder That Was Ours explores deep racial and class divides through the most unlikely eyes imaginable, taking a unique perspective on prejudice, compassion, and the absurdity of the human experience. A poignant, worldly, and unforgettable novel in the spirit of Exit West and Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist.
Industry Reviews
"Don't let the omniscient cockroach narrators scare you. Put down the Roach Out! Listen to the bugs. As the passengers on an off-shore cruise ship fall to a pestilential sickness, the island nation of St. Anne and its people suffer a series of cataclysms. The Wonder That Was Ours is both funny and grim, jaunty and horrifying. The cockroaches lead a master class on the ravages of colonialism. They preach something of survival, too, and occasionally even hope."
-Daniel A. Hoyt, author of This Book Is Not For You
"What an unexpected pleasure this book was! By the end of this book I was in love and in awe: not only had the author pulled off this unusual conceit, but she'd used it to build a truly moving and revealing story. The Wonder That Was Ours is a thoughtful, fresh take on empathy, isolation, fear, and the legacies of colonialism. Professor Cleave, Dave, Helen, Tremor, and, yes, the cockroaches will remain in your hearts and your minds for a long time after finishing this book."
-Chrissy Kolaya, author of Charmed Particles
"Through chiseled prose, potent imagery, and a cast of narrators who operate as a hat tip to Kafka, Alice Hatcher's comitragic cautionary tale about race and class is impossible to forget. Part farce and part lament, The Wonder That Was Ours reminds us how 'so much depends upon perspective.'"
-Lindsey Drager, author of The Lost Daughter Collective