#FridayReads: Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique

A major debut from an award-winning writer—an epic family saga set against the magic and the rhythms of the Virgin Islands.


In the early 1900s, the Virgin Islands are transferred from Danish to American rule, and an important ship sinks into the Caribbean Sea. Orphaned by the shipwreck are two sisters and their half brother, now faced with an uncertain identity and future. Each of them is unusually beautiful, and each is in possession of a particular magic that will either sink or save them.


Chronicling three generations of an island family from 1916 to the 1970s, Land of Love and Drowning is a novel of love and magic, set against the emergence of Saint Thomas into the modern world. Uniquely imagined, with echoes of Toni Morrison, Gabriel García Márquez, and the author’s own Caribbean family history, the story is told in a language and rhythm that evoke an entire world and way of life and love. Following the Bradshaw family through sixty years of fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, love affairs, curses, magical gifts, loyalties, births, deaths, and triumphs, Land of Love and Drowning is a gorgeous, vibrant debut by an exciting, prizewinning young writer.

Tiphanie Yanique is from Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands. The author of the story collection How to Escape from a Leper Colony, she is a 2010 Rona Jaffe Writers’ Award winner and was named by the National Book Awards as one of 2011’s “5 Under 35.”  She teaches at the New School and lives in Brooklyn and Saint Thomas

Spread the love

More Articles for You

Basque, Portuguese & Noble Families of Puerto Rico: The European Roots You Didn’t Learn About

Explore how Basque, Portuguese, and noble European families shaped Puerto Rico’s southern towns (like Ponce) through surnames, migration paths, and hidden ancestral histories.

Spread the love

Puerto Rican Surnames with Taíno & African Roots: Origins in Ponce, Juana Díaz & the Southern Highlands

Many of the names we still see today (Montalvo, Negrón, Fontanes, Rivera, Chamorro, Zapata, Maldonado) carry the intertwined legacies of Taíno survivors, Africans and European migrants who moved through the island. This guide unravels those lineages with care.

Spread the love

I, Medusa by Ayana Gray: A Myth Retold with Power and Humanity

Ayana Gray’s I, Medusa reimagines the mythic villain as sister, priestess, survivor. Read Valerie M. Evans’ review of this bold, haunting retelling.

Spread the love

Brooklyn’s Jane Doe: A Shocking True Story of Assault, Media Betrayal, and Delayed Justice

Book review and critique by Valerie M. Evans: Brooklyn’s Jane Doe reveals how one woman’s assault became a public smear, and why her fight for justice still matters today.

Spread the love

Other Inheritances: Scent Memories from a Childhood at Fat’s Pet Shop in East Harlem

Before I ever knew what a perfumer was or that someone could make a living decoding and remixing scent, I …

Spread the love

Ghosts of the Palisades: Threads between memories, places and time

Somewhere tucked away, high on the Palisades, on lovely, dead end street, in the ether of the internet and Google …

Spread the love