The Polished Hoe

There's been a tragedy. As 60-year-old Mary-Mathilda gives her statement to Sergeant Percy, her memories reveal a harrowing portrait of plantation life on a fictional Caribbean island in the 1950s. Mary-Mathilda weaves island history with a tale of racism, de-facto slavery, and lifelong abuse at the hands of Manager Bellfeels, who took her as his "outside-woman" at the age of 13. For 38 years, she remained at his mercy, including bearing his children. Canadian writer Austin Clarke's sultry, languid prose seduces; Mary-Mathilda's rambling, circular remembrances mesmerize; and Robin Miles's liquid sugar-cane voice beguiles, enchants, and sticks you fast to this beautifully imagined story. THE POLISHED HOE won the Commonwealth Writers Prize, and Miles deserves a prize for this performance. From island patois to standard broadcast speech, she enhances every word, every emotion, every richly remembered detail. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine