Listen free for 30 days

1 credit a month, good for any title to download and keep.
The Plus Catalogue—listen all you want to thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts, and audiobooks.
$14.95 a month plus applicable taxes after 30 day trial. Cancel anytime.
How to Love a Jamaican cover art

How to Love a Jamaican

Written by: Alexia Arthurs
Narrated by: Janina Edwards,Adenrele Ojo,Dominic Hoffman,James Fouhey
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $30.70

Buy Now for $30.70

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

“In these kaleidoscopic stories of Jamaica and its diaspora we hear many voices at once. All of them convince and sing. All of them shine.” (Zadie Smith)

An O: The Oprah Magazine "Top 15 Best of the Year" 

A Well-Read Black Girl’s Pick 

Tenderness and cruelty, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and regret - Alexia Arthurs navigates these tensions to extraordinary effect in her debut collection about Jamaican immigrants and their families back home. Sweeping from close-knit island communities to the streets of New York City and midwestern university towns, these 11 stories form a portrait of a nation, a people, and a way of life.

In "Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands", an NYU student befriends a fellow Jamaican whose privileged West Coast upbringing has blinded her to the hard realities of race. In "Mash Up Love", a twin’s chance sighting of his estranged brother - the prodigal son of the family - stirs up unresolved feelings of resentment. In “Bad Behavior”, a couple leave their wild teenage daughter with her grandmother in Jamaica, hoping the old ways will straighten her out. In "Mermaid River", a Jamaican teenage boy is reunited with his mother in New York after eight years apart. In "The Ghost of Jia Yi", a recently murdered student haunts a despairing Jamaican athlete recruited to an Iowa college. And in “Shirley from a Small Place”, a world-famous pop star retreats to her mother's big new house in Jamaica, which still holds the power to restore something vital.

Alexia Arthurs emerges in this vibrant, lyrical, intimate collection as one of fiction’s most dynamic and essential authors. 

Audiobook Table of Contents:

LIGHT-SKINNED GIRLS AND KELLY ROWLANDS, read by Adenrele Ojo

MASH UP LOVE, read by Dominic Hoffman

SLACK, read by Janina Edwards

BAD BEHAVIOR, read by Janina Edwards

ISLAND, read by Adenrele Ojo

MERMAID RIVER, read by James Fouhey

THE GHOST OF JIA YI, read by Janina Edwards

HOW TO LOVE A JAMAICAN, read by Dominic Hoffman

ON SHELF, read by Janina Edwards

WE EAT OUR DAUGHTERS, read by Janina Edwards and Adenrele Ojo

SHIRLEY FROM A SMALL PLACE, read by Janina Edwards

Praise for How to Love a Jamaican:

"A sublime short-story collection from newcomer Alexia Arthurs that explores, through various characters, a specific strand of the immigrant experience." (Entertainment Weekly

“Gorgeous, tender, heartbreaking stories.... Arthurs is a witty, perceptive, and generous writer, and this is a book that will last.” (Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties)  

"Vivid and exciting...every story rings beautifully true." (Marie Claire)

©2018 Alexia Arthurs (P)2018 Random House Audio

What the critics say

“In vibrant, evocative prose, Arthurs brings these characters, and their varied experiences of a shared home, to life.” (BuzzFeed

“With its singular mix of psychological precision and sun-kissed lyricism, this dazzling debut marks the emergence of a knockout new voice.” (O: The Oprah Magazine)

What listeners say about How to Love a Jamaican

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Please get authentic Jamaican audio readers

I loved the stories. I am a first-generation Canadian, my parents are Jamaican born and left in their early twenties. I love audiobooks and I am an author myself. I am concerned that there seems to be a real shortage of audio readers who can do authentic Jamaican accents. I found it distracting. Common Jamaican patois words such as duppy and pickney were mispronounced as “doopy” and “pick a nee”. Other than this, I loved this book but the accents did not always flow. What can be done about this? A more complete review is on Goodreads.

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great short stories

These short stories really capture my experience growing up in the Caribbean. True to life, loved it!

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Amazon Customer
  • Amazon Customer
  • 2019-03-28

Wha gwaan?!

We need authentic Jamaican speakers, pleaseeee! to read the stories. It's a disservice not to have. I am disappointed.

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Charlise
  • Charlise
  • 2019-01-22

Not at all what I expected

This book was disappointing. As a Jamaican American, I hoped to hear authentic Jamaican voices bring these stories to life. Not only were he accents completely off base, but the stories weren’t very compelling either. I didn’t expect to feel a connection to everyone’s own oral history, but it was significantly underwhelming as a Jamaican, as a black woman, and simply a lover of the arts.

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for tasscia williams
  • tasscia williams
  • 2019-02-08

Beautiful stories, horrible inauthentic Jamaican accents

As a Jamaican living in the diaspora, I loved the stories in this book and felt that they were very authentic and well written. I really disliked the readers of the stories. Their imitation of Jamaican accents were so horrible I often had to translate things in my mind and it made it so painful to listen to their voices.

I found myself yelling corrections at the readers and it made it difficult for me to relax and enjoy the stories.

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for N. Harvey
  • N. Harvey
  • 2020-10-25

Accents Are Terrible

The narration was hard to listen to. The stories were just okay. Mostly a boring painful listen

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Andrea Benjamin
  • Andrea Benjamin
  • 2018-09-16

Simply amazing

This book is simply amazing. The stories are relatable, human, but grounded in the experience of Jamaica! I loved the characters in each story and I know they will be on my mind for a while!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Kerry-Ann Curtis
  • Kerry-Ann Curtis
  • 2020-04-13

Jamaicans needed

Realistic, and well put together storlines.
However the authenticity of the Jamaican accent was lacking .

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Lala
  • Lala
  • 2019-12-30

Great stories with cringeworthy accents!!!

This was a painful listen for a Caribbean ear, but the stories are worth reading!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for OwlLover
  • OwlLover
  • 2019-10-23

Easy to relate to as a Caribbean woman

I didn't know what to expect from this collection. It delivered on the experience of Jamaican migrants and relationships between parents and children. The stories were interesting, offering something to relate to without trite or cliche.

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Amazon Customer
  • Amazon Customer
  • 2022-03-11

Good listening

I really liked listening to this but I wasn't a fan of the "Jamaican" accent lol

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for MJ
  • MJ
  • 2021-06-13

Love it!!!!

Some of these stories were just like my childhood. I felt like these mothers were my mother. I recommend that Jamaican mothers listen to this book to help them understand there kids.

1 person found this helpful