Valdeen Shears-Neptune
She was jealous of the prolific English author Charles Dickens for penning Great Expectations and would easily declare that after reading A House for Mr Biswas as a student of literature, she was convinced that a path was made for local authors like herself.
For Aliyyah Eniath, the seed was planted for what would years later be her debut novel, a literary romance titled, The Yard.
"I was greatly inspired when after reading A House for Mr Biswas at school, I realised a narrative set in a seemingly-inconsequential island in the Caribbean could have worldwide appeal and also for the first time, I could make it as a novelist," said Eniath during a recent interview with the Guardian.
The former Holy Faith (Couva) student said the genesis for her novel, which launched on June 17, in New Delhi, India, was a casual conversation on adoption. The novel was published by Speaking Tiger Books and launched in conjunction with the T&T High Commission in India.
"I was having a conversation with a fellow Muslim in Trinidad and casually said I was thinking of adopting a child. She responded by saying it was against our faith. I was taken aback. How could something so selfless be against one's faith?" she mused.
Eniath said she looked into the sensitive topic further and saw the complications of adopting a child in Islam.
Among those were the issues of being prohibited to change the child's name and to claim the child as your own. Additionally, if one adopted a boy and the household had girls then they would be required to wear full garb and hijab at all times in his presence. The females could also wed an adoptive brother.
The idea stuck in her head and while admittedly it discouraged her somewhat from adopting, out of this was borne the idea of the protagonists, Behrooz, an abandoned young boy, adopted by businessman Khalid and his wayward and rebellious daughter, Maya.
It took her five years to finally write "the end" on the last page of Behrooz and Maya's story, but she said it was a long process of rewriting and redrafting.
"It took this long because I was learning to find and perfect my voice and refine my writing techniques for that particular craft as I went along," she said.
The Yard tells of the growth of a childhood bond and later a struggle with romantic attraction.What follows is a haunting story of love, family obligations and redemption.
"In the end, the novel calls for a journey of the heart, doing what you feel in your heart is the right thing to do, rather than focusing on stringent religious rules and cultural predispositions, which in this case caused problems with the family and for my protagonists," she said.
While she said life did not imitate art for her novel and none of the characters resemble or represent anyone in her novel, she noted the novel's title and its settings mirror that of a location in Curepe, Trinidad, where her father grew up as a child. Eniath said she was fascinated when as a child her father would take her on holiday trips to the "The Yard" in Curepe.
Just like in another of Eniath's favourite novel, Wuthering Heights, she noted that the environment was as integral as the protagonists themselves.
As for the novel's launch in India, Eniath said she had looked into finding a publisher in the Caribbean for fiction with worldwide distribution, networks and links for agents and publishers, specific to what she wanted to produce and there was none.She then looked abroad for a publisher both in the UK and India where she felt there would be an interest in the book, as those two territories just seemed to fit.
This journey would see her seek out the partnership of Renuka Chatterjee in India, who is reputed for being the top literary agent there.
"Luckily she fell in love with the book and when she became the consulting editor for Speaking Tiger Books (India) an offer came from the publishing house to publish and introduce me as a novelist in the India subcontinent," she explained.
Eniath was expected to host her first reading yesterday at The Normandie, Tea and Reading, Paper Based Workshop. The event will also see the readings of other Caribbean writers.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aliyyah Eniath has over ten years experience in printing and publishing and has been exposed to the industry all her life, as she grew up around books and printing in her family's business, Eniath's Printing Company Ltd. Her glossy magazines Caribbean Belle and Belle Weddings have won awards from the Caribbean Advertising Federation and the Florida Printers' Association for print design and printing.
