The Toronto author's Jamaican birthplace provides the setting for some powerful and poignant stories that span a period of roughly 150 years, from the closing days of slavery in 1838 to the 1980s.

The tensions wrought by rapid change and conflicting loyalties are at the heart of these stories, most beautifully evoked in the novella Arrival of the Snake-Woman.

Here a young boy narrates the seminal event of his childhood in the late nineteenth century: the coming of a lonely Indian indentured woman into a mountain village. Senior's stories are leavened with wit, and her characters emerge as triumphant examples of the human spirit unraveling the complex weave of race, class, and cultural and ethnic identity.

Senior will appear at the International Festival of Authors in Toronto, with readings Oct 31 and Nov 3. She is one of Canada's most acclaimed writers. Her body of published work includes four books of poetry, three collections of short stories, and several award-winning non-fiction works on Caribbean culture. For details visit www.tsarbooks.com