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* A BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK FOR 2023 *
* LONGLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2024 *

‘A shimmering slice of Trinidadian gothic’ THE TIMES
‘An astonishing novel’ BERNARDINE EVARISTO
‘Deeply impressive ‘ HILARY MANTEL

The music was still playing when Dalton Changoor vanished into thin air…

On a hill overlooking Bell Village sits the Changoor farm, where Dalton and Marlee Changoor live in luxury unrecognisable to those who reside in the farm’s shadow. Down below is the barrack, a ramshackle building of wood and tin, divided into rooms occupied by whole families. Among these families are the Saroops – Hans, Shweta, and their son, Krishna, who live hard lives of backbreaking work, grinding poverty and devotion to faith.

When Dalton Changoor goes missing and Marlee’s safety is compromised, farmhand Hans is lured by the promise of a handsome stipend to move to the farm as watchman. But as the mystery of Dalton’s disappearance unfolds their lives become hellishly entwined, and the small community altered forever.

Hungry Ghosts is a mesmerising novel about violence, religion, family and class, rooted in the wild and pastoral landscape of 1940s colonial central Trinidad.

A 2023 highlight for: Financial Times * Guardian * Evening Standard * Daily Mail * BBC News

Publisher Review

Rich in vocabulary and description, the novel situates characters in a meticulously detailed setting that evokes Middlemarch, with a similar empathy for human struggle . . . In scope and style it's not far off a masterpiece * Financial Times, Highlights for 2023 * A striking debut of violence, religion and family struggles set in 1940s colonial Trinidad * Guardian, Highlights for 2022 * The biggest, most frightening, beautiful and alive novel I've read in as long as I can remember -- Evie Wyld A vibrant portrait of Trinidad in the 1940s . . . [Hosein's] story, often brutal, ultimately tragic, is nevertheless lit by a wide embrace reaching beyond place and people to the bedrock. Immersive, persuasive: an elemental "portal to the Caribbean" delivered in a distinctive voice * Kirkus (starred review) * In Hungry Ghosts, Kevin Jared Hosein takes a small place, a particular slice of Trinidad and writes it with the depth and scope that it deserves. And he does it because he knows it - truly, deeply. The result is a story that is harrowing, fiercely beautiful and deeply human. I won't soon forget these characters or this story. I think we are going to be talking about this book for a long time to come -- Ayanna Lloyd Banwo Hungry Ghosts is an astonishing novel - linguistically gorgeous, narratively propulsive and psychologically profound -- Bernardine Evaristo This is a deeply impressive book, and I think an important one. Its intensity, its narrative attack, the fascinations of its era and setting, make it impossible to tear the attention away. Energy and inventiveness distinguish every page -- Hilary Mantel [Hungry Ghosts] is beautiful, biblical, vast in scope and power, ringing with an energy that blasts from the intricate language. Hosein is a new enormous giant of fiction -- Daisy Johnson