Cherie Jones

About

Cherie Jones is a Barbadian novelist and lawyer whose writing explores domestic violence, social inequality, family relationships, and the complexities of life in the Caribbean. Born in Barbados in 1974, she studied law at the University of the West Indies and completed her legal training at Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad. She was admitted to the Barbados Bar in 1997 and continues to work as a lawyer alongside her literary career. Jones won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 1999, bringing early recognition to her fiction. She later pursued a master’s degree in creative writing at Sheffield Hallam University in the United Kingdom, where she received the Archie Markham Award and the A. M. Heath Prize. Her short stories have appeared in literary publications including PANK and The Feminist Wire, and her work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Her debut novel, How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House (2021), was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and selected for the Good Morning America Book Club. Set in Barbados, the novel examines the realities of gender-based violence and class inequality beneath the island’s tourist image. Jones is recognized for her nuanced portrayal of Caribbean life and her exploration of the ways personal histories and social structures shape women’s experiences.

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How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House

On the sun-drenched shores of Baxter’s Beach, Barbados, paradise hides a darker reality of poverty, domestic violence, and generational trauma. Lala, a young woman raised on her grandmother’s cautionary tales, finds herself trapped in an abusive marriage to Adan, a charming but violent petty criminal. When a botched burglary leads to a shocking act of violence, Lala’s life becomes entangled with that of Mira Whalen, a wealthy visitor whose husband is murdered during the same fateful night. As their stories converge, the lives of several characters reveal the devastating consequences of choices made under desperation, fear, and social inequality. Through the intersecting experiences of women struggling to survive in a society shaped by class divisions and patriarchal power, Cherie Jones examines the cycles of violence passed from one generation to the next. Haunting and unflinching, the novel challenges the idyllic image of Caribbean paradise, exposing the lives and sacrifices hidden beneath its beautiful surface.

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