The Arrivants

A major landmark of 20th-century Caribbean poetry. “Those who lament that the Age of Giants is over have evidently never read Kamau Brathwaite” (Eliot Weinberger)

Here, in a single volume, is Kamau Brathwaite’s early groundbreaking trilogy The Arrivants—containing Rights of Passage (1967), Masks (1968), and Islands (1969)—a brilliant and visionary exploration of the predicament of the poet living in the New World. Through the tension of regional dialect, musical rhythms, historical flashbacks, and excursions to Europe, New York, and Africa, Brathwaite interweaves the past and present of his Caribbean homeland—its natural beauty, its violent history, and the values that sustain its people—into a vigorous and unforgettable poetic work.