The essential coming-of-age novel by Jamaica Kincaid, Annie John is a haunting and provocative story of a young girl growing up on the island of Antigua. Kincaid's novel focuses on a universal, tragic, and often comic theme: the loss of childhood. Annie's voice—urgent, demanding to be heard—is one that will not soon be forgotten by readers.
An adored only child, Annie has until recently lived an idyllic life. She is inseparable from her beautiful mother, a powerful presence, who is the very center of the little girl's existence. Loved and cherished, Annie grows and thrives within her mother's benign shadow. Looking back on her childhood, she reflects, "It was in such a paradise that I lived."
When she turns twelve, however, Annie's life changes, in ways that are often mysterious to her. She begins to question the cultural assumptions of her island world; at school she instinctively rebels against authority; and most frighteningly, her mother, seeing Annie as a "young lady," ceases to be the source of unconditional adoration and takes on the new and unfamiliar guise of adversary.
At the end of her school years, Annie decides to leave Antigua and her family, but not without a measure of sorrow, especially for the mother she once knew and never ceases to mourn. "For I could not be sure," she reflects, "whether for the rest of my life I would be able to tell when it was really my mother and when it was really her shadow standing between me and the rest of the world."
- Self Care...(ebook)
- Classics (ebook)
- Home Design (ebook)
- Virgin River and Sweet Magnolia Read-alikes (ebooks)
- Historical Fiction (ebooks)
- Biographies and Autobiographies (ebook)
- Christian Fiction (ebook)
- Suspense and Thrillers (ebook)
- Science Fiction and Fantasy (ebook)
- No Wait Ebooks
- Differing Abilities (kids)
- Adult New Readers
- See all
- Mystery Fiction (audio)
- Horror (audio)
- Westerns (audio)
- Historical Fiction (audio)
- Biography and Autobiography (audio)
- Thrillers and Suspense (audio)
- We Are Made by History...(audio)
- Self-Care is... (audio)
- Christian Fiction (audio)
- Don't Forget the Classics (audio)
- Romance (audio)
- Science Fiction and Fantasy (audio)
- No Wait Audiobooks
- See all
- 2023-2024 SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees
- 2023-2024 SC Children's Book Award Nominees
- 2023-2024 SC Picture Book Award Nominees
- 2023-2024 SC Junior Book Award Nominees
- See all