Brown Girl in the Ring (1998)

Hopkinson carries Afro-Caribbean spirit traditions into a future Toronto abandoned by its wealthy residents. Ti-Jeanne’s relationship with her grandmother makes healing, inherited knowledge and obligations to the spirits part of everyday survival. The Caribbean song behind the title and the novel’s shifting speech registers matter as much as its supernatural dangers. Expect a dark, violent story of diaspora and family, with traditions meeting and changing in a new place.