Popisho cover art

Popisho

A Novel

 Preview

Audible Standard 1-month free trial

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo + applicable tax after 30-day trial. Cancel Anytime
Try for $0.00
More purchase options

Popisho

Written by: Leone Ross
Narrated by: Leone Ross
Try for $0.00

$8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $28.19

Buy Now for $28.19

An uproarious, sensual novel, Leone Ross's Popisho conjures a world where magic is everywhere, food is fate, politics are broken, and love awaits.

Everyone in Popisho was born...with a little something...The local name for it was cors. Magic, but more than magic. A gift, nah? Yes. From the gods: a thing that felt so inexpressibly your own.

Somewhere far away—or maybe right nearby—lies an archipelago called Popisho. A place of stunning beauty and incorrigible mischief, destiny and mystery, it is also a place in need of change.

Xavier Redchoose is the macaenus of his generation, anointed by the gods to make each resident one perfect meal when the time is right. Anise, his long lost love, is on a march toward reckoning with her healing powers. The governor’s daughter, Sonteine, is getting married, her father demanding a feast out of turn. And graffiti messages from an unknown source are asking hard questions. A storm is brewing. Before it comes, before the end of the day, this wildly imaginative narrative will take us across the islands, their history, and into the lives of unforgettable characters.

Popisho is a masterful delight: a playful love story, a portrait of community, a boldly sensual meditation on desire and addiction, and a critique of the legacies of corruption and colonialism. Inspired by the author's Jamaican homeland, inflected with rhythms and textures of an amalgam of languages, it is a dazzling, major work of fiction, in conversation with the likes of Gabriel García Márquez, Toni Morrison, and Arundhati Roy. Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Magic Destiny
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
All stars
Most Relevant
I wanted to relocate. I wanted to melt into this story and take up residence. It is so full of beauty and sadness and danger and madness and wonder and the magic of simply being alive. There is hatred and anger, greed, loss, and heartache, but these are overwhelmed by love, acceptance, and the joy of just being. This story is honest without the brutality that typically comes with such candour. The writing draws you in so that you know each character, know Popisho itself, intimately (though Popisho shifts and changes, startles, and remains mysterious). You will anxiously hold your breath, sigh with relief, and you will mourn. At times, you will laugh outright at the audacity. The author, Leone Ross, narrates brilliantly and with nuance. There is such a sense of community in Popisho that is absent in current contexts. A holding on to each other, an accountability. This is a reimagining of the world as it could and perhaps should be. A welcoming into a place that is so strange but still strangely home. Each character—with their secrets, their strengths, their struggles—will resonate because you know them. I’ll need to purchase a hard copy just so I can slip my fingers into the pages from time to time to feel found.

Wonder, Heartbreak, Magic, and Restoration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really enjoyed this story. It was one of those rare stories that have the magic to carry you away for a time and lets you forget about your own life for a bit. The story was set in an island paradise with fallible human beings, magic and lots of humor. Definitely a must read for those looking for a short staycation.

A story that will carry you away

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.