My Own Dear People

Nyjah Messado has built a life away from home, but he is haunted not by a ghost, but by a memory: the moment he witnessed a brutal sexual assault and chose silence. Raised within the rigid masculine codes of an elite Jamaican boys’ school, Nyjah learns early what is expected of him: loyalty to other men, contempt for weakness, and the careful management of guilt. Years later, returning to Montego Bay, he must navigate a city shaped by class divisions, colonial legacies and violence, while confronting the moral cost of what he failed to do. A fierce, lyrical coming-of-age novel about masculinity, complicity and self-deception.