Charts the history of a Spiritual Baptist community from the passing of the Prohibition Ordinance in 1917 until the lifting of the ban in 1951.

Earl Lovelace writes about the survival of a small community of Spiritual Baptists with a lyricism and understanding of dialogue which has established an international reputation. 'If we clap we hands and catch the Spirit, the police could arrest us. One day we was Baptist, the next day we is criminals.' The Wine of Astonishment is a poignant and devastating tale of the discrimination the Black community of Bonasse faced during the first half of the 20th century. Told from the perspective of a religious wife, Eva retells the torment and tribulations her family and friends endure at the hands of abusive police and corrupt government officials. Hurtling towards its tragic climax, Bolo's transformation embodies the tragedy manifested when a people are pushed too far.

Excerpt from The Wine of Astonishment He was on fire to be off to his adventure. He felt himself a man, an explorer, a free lance. It was mad dening to have to thrust his head into the family living room and tell his parents that he was going over to Henry's for all night. And parents are not too easily satisfied. His father merely glanced up from the inevitable book, but his mother put down her magazine and told him to come in. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

'A landmark, not in the West Indian, but in the contemporary novel.' C. L. R. James 'First-class talent.' The Voice Trinidad, 1970s. Calvary Hill - poverty stricken and rubbish-strewn - is home to a community of people who come together during the joyful yearly town Carnival, becoming larger-than-life versions of themselves. But when it ends, and the strains of day-to-day life grow large, what happens to the peoples' hopes, and the feeling that 'all o' we is one'? With an unforgettable cast of characters, The Dragon Can't Dance is a stunning, classic novel of the desire for identity and belonging, alongside the legacies of a colonial past.

Today, millions of people around the world enjoy California's legendary wines, unaware that 90 years ago the families who made these wines--and in many cases still do – turned to struggle and subterfuge to save the industry we now cherish. When Prohibition took effect in 1919, three months after one of the greatest California grape harvests of all time, violence and chaos descended on Northern California. Federal agents spilled thousands of gallons of wine in the rivers and creeks, gun battles erupted on dark country roads, and local law enforcement officers, sympathetic to their winemaking neighbors, found ways to run circles around the intruding authorities. For the state's winemaking families--many of them immigrants from Italy--surviving Prohibition meant facing impossible decisions, whether to give up the idyllic way of life their families had known for generations, or break the law to enable their wine businesses and their livelihood to survive. Including moments of both desperation and joy, Sosnowski tells the inspiring story of how ordinary people fought to protect to a beautiful and timeless culture in the lovely hills and valleys of now-celebrated wine country.