Book Of The Little Axe

 Lauren Frances-Sharma is the author of Book Of The Little Axe: A Novel. I just finished reading it today. The story starts out in the late 1700's in Trinidad as the English are taking over for the Spanish in colonizing the island of Trinidad. A father of a boy and two girls is trying to make a living as a farmer and a blacksmith. He makes quality axes. He makes things for the Spanish such as handcuffs but he doesn't realize, or he doesn't want to realize, that the people wearing those handcuffs he made are from Africa. The father is from Africa too. His younger daughter, Rosa, is rebellious. She is not satisfied working in the kitchen or making healing salves. She prefers to work with the horses and run the farm. At first her father encourages her to be a rebel. Later, as it becomes unclear if black farm owners can keep their property, he changes his mind about Rosa. Later, in the 1830's, Rosa is living in the Crow Nation in Montana. Rosa is still tall, still a rebel, and still trying to survive in a changing landscape. The book was long with lots of tragic consequences.