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Magnificent stories about Caribbean immigrants navigating the emotional terrain of girlhood, displacement, longing, and identity across continents.
Layaway Child is a luminous debut short story collection by award-winning writer Chanel Sutherland that explores the emotional landscapes of Caribbean families fractured by migration, especially the harrowing yet resilient journeys of Black girls and women. In lyrical, linked stories, Sutherland traces the lives of mothers working abroad as housekeepers and nannies, and the children they left behind.
From lush island childhoods marked by absence and community, to the cold, alienating spaces of Canadian cities, Layaway Child captures the complexity of growing up between worlds. A mother, newly arrived in Montreal, is kept from speaking to her daughters by her own mother's misguided attempt to help her let go of home. A schoolgirl becomes a spectacle under the gaze of white classmates. A young girl's curiosity about the cosmos collides with the confusion of puberty. Sutherland brings deep compassion and sharp insight to each moment, revealing both the beauty of island life and the harshness of immigration's toll.
Magnificent stories about Caribbean immigrants navigating the emotional terrain of girlhood, displacement, longing, and identity across continents.
• OWN VOICES STORY COLLECTION: Centered around themes of girlhood, migration, sexualization, racism, and abuse, the stories in Layaway Child are rooted in author Chanel Sutherland's own experiences growing up in a small village in St. Vincent and later immigrating to Canada.
• LYRICAL EXPLORATION: With poetic precision, Layaway Child captures the emotional landscapes of Caribbean families fractured by migration. This short story collection speaks directly to current conversations around immigration, family separation, and the long-term psychological effects of economic displacement - especially for women and children.
• EXAMINING BLACK GIRLHOOD: A rare and intimate portrayal of Black girls navigating displacement, puberty, and identity both in their home countries and in new, often alienating lands.
Layaway Child is a luminous debut short story collection by award-winning writer Chanel Sutherland that explores the emotional landscapes of Caribbean families fractured by migration, especially the harrowing yet resilient journeys of Black girls and women. In lyrical, linked stories, Sutherland traces the lives of mothers working abroad as housekeepers and nannies, and the children they left behind.
From lush island childhoods marked by absence and community, to the cold, alienating spaces of Canadian cities, Layaway Child captures the complexity of growing up between worlds. A mother, newly arrived in Montreal, is kept from speaking to her daughters by her own mother's misguided attempt to help her let go of home. A schoolgirl becomes a spectacle under the gaze of white classmates. A young girl's curiosity about the cosmos collides with the confusion of puberty. Sutherland brings deep compassion and sharp insight to each moment, revealing both the beauty of island life and the harshness of immigration's toll.
Magnificent stories about Caribbean immigrants navigating the emotional terrain of girlhood, displacement, longing, and identity across continents.
• OWN VOICES STORY COLLECTION: Centered around themes of girlhood, migration, sexualization, racism, and abuse, the stories in Layaway Child are rooted in author Chanel Sutherland's own experiences growing up in a small village in St. Vincent and later immigrating to Canada.
• LYRICAL EXPLORATION: With poetic precision, Layaway Child captures the emotional landscapes of Caribbean families fractured by migration. This short story collection speaks directly to current conversations around immigration, family separation, and the long-term psychological effects of economic displacement - especially for women and children.
• EXAMINING BLACK GIRLHOOD: A rare and intimate portrayal of Black girls navigating displacement, puberty, and identity both in their home countries and in new, often alienating lands.