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by Scarlet Ibis James (Author)
Scarlet Birthright: What They Left Behind
Award-Winning Standalone Fiction Novella
"A moving family saga ... about fractured family relationships and the healing power of love."- Foreword Reviews
- Winner: Independent Author Network Book of the Year Award
- Winner: NYC Big Book Award, Multicultural Fiction
- First Place: International Firebird Book Awards, Multicultural Fiction
- Winner: Literary Titan Gold Book Award, Fiction
Set between Trinidad and New York from the late 1960s through the early 1990s, Scarlet Birthright traces the lasting consequences of one man's decision to leave. Joromi, a young DJ chasing opportunity abroad, believes distance will protect everyone involved. Instead, his absence shapes the lives of the women left behind, including a daughter he never claims.
Told through the intertwined perspectives of Joromi, Margaret, and Trisha, the novel examines how silence becomes inheritance, how love coexists with harm, and how reckoning arrives long after the moment of choice. The story moves from the social vibrancy of Trinidad's fetes to the restrained interiors of immigrant life in New York, capturing the emotional cost of migration, respectability, and deferred responsibility.
Both intimate and expansive, Scarlet Birthright explores family fracture without simplification and healing without easy resolution. It is a novel about legacy, accountability, and the courage required to interrupt what has been passed down.
"A raw, emotional novella ... messy, real, and haunting in the best way." - Literary Titan, Starred Review
