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Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root: Caribbean Fabulist Fiction Nalo Hopkinson, ed. Montpelier, Vermont Invisible Cities (IPG, distr.). 2000. xiii + 315 pages. $24.95 ($14.95 paper) ISBN 0-9679683-1-3 (2-1 paper)
IN CARIBBEAN LORE, the silk cotton (ceibo) tree attracts spirits to the pits and caves that form around its thick roots. All of the stories in this anthology give us mysterious, supernatural whisperings that might emanate from such a place. According to compiler Nalo Hopkinson, we will find the "plot to be less important than effect, language to be privileged over exact meaning, and the story to be one of the strongest flavors in the mix."
In attempting to name the genre of fiction gathered here, Hopkinson first entertained such terms as "science fiction," "speculative" and "fantastical" fiction, before settling on "fabulist" to characterize...