**WINNER OF THE 2025 GUYANA PRIZE FOR LITERATURE**

From the pen of a multiple award-winning author comes this collection of stories about love, loss, religion, murder, memory, and mystery.

• In "Midnight Shift", a pair of doctors seeking intimacy instead discover a dying patient eager to divulge an ancient crime.
• In "A Memory of Flowers and Coconut", we are cast back to 1940s South America to witness an unfolding rural tragedy.
• In "New", the mystery of a sick child reveals the fabric of Creation itself.
• In "The Emerald in the Diamond", a robbery in the Mongolian desert somehow makes its way to a baseball stadium in Missouri.

These and eight other stories will entertain, evoke, and inspire.

This collection is the winner of the 2025 Guyana Prize for Literature. This is the national book award of the nation of Guyana. The jury noted:

"This is a technically accomplished collection of twelve short stories, set both 'at home' and in the diasporas, that explore various aspects of Indo-Guyanese cultures, histories and heritage. The stylish, measured prose is wry, sardonic and thoughtful; at his best Deonandan demonstrates a mature understanding of what short fiction can do."

Raywat Deonandan' first collection of short stories, "Sweet Like Saltwater", won the 1999 Guyana Prize in the Best First Work category. Here are some samples of reviews of his fiction

• "The imagery is often quite wonderful, capturing sights, sounds, smell, touch, very well." -Linda Field, Arsenal Pulp Press
• "Through... brilliant characterization and dialogue, the reader is engaged in continuous storying." -Anne Forsythe-Moore, Canadian Author Magazine
• "Quirky and engaging." -Jim Bartley, The Globe and Mail
• "Deonandan celebrates the dignity of the common people." -Barbara Mujica, Americas Magazine