This is a moving story of a Trinidadian-Indian family's beginnings, growthand its inevitable dispersal. Savi Naipaul Akal's memoir pays tribute toextraordinary parents: Her father Seepersad Naipaul, virtual orphan in a dirt-poor rural Indian family, one generation away from indentured migration,who through self-education became a remarkable journalist and writer.

Andher mother Dropatie, who displayed remarkable diplomatic skills in sustaininga relationship with the large, prosperous and inward-looking Capildeo clan, ofwhich she was the seventh daughter, whilst loyally supporting her husband'sinsistence on independence and engagement with Trinidadian life. AfterSeepersad's tragically early death, Dropatie held the family together, so that allseven children achieved university education.

It is an account of family loyalty, sacrifice, and sometimes tensions; pride inthe writing achievements of her brothers Vidia and Shiva, and sorrow overestrangements and Shiva's premature death. The memoir also gives a sharplyobserved picture of cultural change in Trinidad from colony to independentnation, of being Indian in a Creole society, and of the role of education inmigrant families.

Elegant and lucid, written with a distinctively personal voice, the book isfurther enhanced by the generous quantity of family photographs that say somuch about these people and the times they lived through. .