Furthermore, I felt that the Tempest was his weakest play by far. I've read more than my fair share of his work and can appreciate what he's done for the genera and his fame, but he is not someone that I sit back and read for fun. Let it be known, I am not a fan of Shakespeare. In this retelling of William Shakespeare's play 'The Tempest', Elizabeth Nunez not only pays homage to the writer, but manages to captivate her readers with good old fashion storytelling. During his investigation, a disturbing picture begins to emerge as a monstrous secret is finally drawn into the light. When Peter discovers the pair’s secret and accuses Carlos of a heinous crime, it is up to a brusque, insensitive English inspector to discover the truth. But as Carlos and Virginia grow up under the same roof, they become deeply and covertly attached to one another. Though Peter considers the boy no better than a savage, he nonetheless schools the child alongside his daughter. On Chacachacare, Peter experiments chiefly on the wild Caribbean flora–and on the dark-skinned orphan Carlos, whose home he steals. Blackmailed by his own brother, Peter ends up on the small island as England’s empire is starting to crumble. An amoral genius, Peter Gardner had used his talents to unsavory ends, experimenting, often with fatal results, on unsuspecting patients. Addressing questions of race, class, and power, it is first and foremost the story of a boy and a girl who come of age and violate the ultimate taboo.Ĭut off from the main island of Trinidad by a glistening green sea, Chacachacare has few inhabitants besides its colony of lepers and a British doctor who fled England with his three-year-old daughter, Virginia. A spellbinding new novel from acclaimed author Elizabeth Nunez, Prospero’s Daughter is a brilliantly conceived retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest set on a lush Caribbean island during the height of tensions between the native population and British colonists.

Prospero's Daughter by Elizabeth Nunez