Blackheart Man

A new Nalo Hopkinson novel is always a treat to look forward to. I’ve known that Hopkinson has been working on this one for many years. Sadly life has got in the way and slowed her production, but the book is now available and already picking up accolades. It is a finalist for this year’s Ursula K Le Guin Prize, which should give you some idea of what to expect.

The action takes place on the island of Chynchin which exists in an alternate world analogue of the Caribbean. The inhabitants are all brown-skinned. However, we learn that some 200 years ago they were enslaved by pale-skinned people called Ymisen who live far away across the sea. The people of Chynchin rebelled and, thanks to the intervention of three witches, the Ymisen army was drowned in one of the tar pits for which the island is famed. These days no one quite knows how the witches managed to make a tar pit appear suddenly under the enemy army, and make it solidify as soon and they have been subsumed, but everyone knows it happened, and the island has been free ever since. Now a Ymisen fleet has been spotted off the coast, and the island is in danger once again.

This being Hopkinson, things are not quite that simple. To start with, there are two distinct ethnic groups on Chynchin. There are the darker skinned people, who are in charge, and the Mirmeki, known as ‘Deserters’, who are very much second class citizens.

Our main character, Veycosi, is a young man from a wealthy family. He is training to be an academic, and once he graduates he is due to marry Thandiwe, who owns a fish farming business. However, Veycosi has many of the less attractive qualities of elite men. He is convinced of his own brilliance, and consequently prone to doing things on a whim without thinking of the consequences. Nor does he pay much attention to anyone else. And he is totally blind to his own privilege.

Fortunately for Thandiwe, the custom on Chynchin is for women to take two husbands. Her other betrothed, Gombey, is a much more sensible fellow. But Thandiwe already has a child, a girl about to become a teenager. This is not the result of a youthful dalliance. Kaïra was conceived by parthenogenesis, which is rare on the island but not unknown. Any girl child born in this way is destined to become a priestess in the service of the island’s twin cayman goddesses, Mamapiche and Mamagua.

So there is a lot going on, and that’s without a fleet of ships full of pale-faced soldiers in too-warm woolen uniforms showing up and attempting to annex the island. Really, Veycosi can cause enough trouble all by himself, without these foreigners making matters worse.

Meanwhile, in the tar pit, some of the dead soldiers are beginning to stir.

The title, Blackheart Man, is a reference to an island folktale of a demonic figure who emerges from the tar pits to kidnap badly behaved children.

The core of the story is Veycosi’s journey to self-knowledge, with the invasion being dealt with along the way. But a lot more has to happen to obtain that result in addition to having Veycosi learn to think before he acts, and to care about other people. A second theme running through the book is one of sexual and gender diversity. I’ve already mentioned the polyandry. The people of Chynchin have a very relaxed and sensible attitude to sexuality and gender. As with Hopkinson’s other work, this is a very thoughtful book. I can quite see what the Le Guin Prize jury picked it.

Oh, and there is a camel called Goat, who also has an important role to play in the story.

Title: Blackheart Man
By: Nalo Hopkinson
Publisher: Saga Press
Purchase links:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
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