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Richard Hughes's celebrated short novel is a masterpiece of concentrated narrative. Its dreamlike action begins among the decayed plantation houses and overwhelming natural abundance of late nineteenth-century Jamaica, before moving out onto the high seas, as Hughes tells the... Read Full Overview

Originally published: The innocent voyage. Boston: Harper, 1929.

A High Wind in Jamaica, first published as The Innocent Voyage in 1929, is a classic coming-of-age novel. The story centers on the five children of the Bas-Thornton family, living on a plantation in late nineteenth-century Jamaica. Following a devastating... Read Full Overview

"A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes is like those books you used to read under the covers with a flashlight, only infinitely more delicious and macabre." --Andrew Sean Greer, All Things Considered

On the high seas of the Caribbean, a family of English children is set loose - sent by their parents from their home in Jamaica to receive the civilising effects of England. When their ship is captured by pirates, the thrilling cruise continues as the children transfer their... Read Full Overview

"Republished 1978 by special arrangement"--T.p. verso.