Is "Pleasantview", the setting of this book, a real place? Why did you choose that name? No, it's not a real place. It's an ironic name. Meant to address the escapism and exoticism which, in my opinion, is the primary feature of North Americans' attitude to Caribbean islands, our women and our way of life. The name sets up that trite expectation, but read on to find the complex truth. Our accents aren't merely "sexy", they are musical and our speech is lyrical and poetic - a worthy tool for literary fiction. Our women aren't merely objects for oversexualization. They are, by and large, hardworking women born into a culture which normalizes abuse and abandonment by men, and which even perpetuates male fragility. Q: So, the book is primarily set on the island of Trinidad, where you live.

Is it important to you to have these stories read outside of Trinidad? Yes, it is important. It's not often Americans read a book from Trinidad, yet I understand we are the fifth largest contributor of Caribbean immigrants - and I won't even get into the other socio-political entanglements between our countries. Usually, when you do find stories about Trinidad on the international literary scene, they are written by authors who no longer live here. Sitting here, far from the literary publishing centres of the world, and writing from here, about here is very different to writing from a place of nostalgia - a remembered Trinidad - or from a safe distance. So it is important to me that such a proximate voice, particularly a female one, be admitted to a cultural conversation on the many areas of intersect and cross-fertilization between the Caribbean and America. Q: In this book you employ both Standard English and Trinidad Creole, sometimes even giving the latter pride of place. Are you concerned that may limit the readability of your work? Although the official language of Trinidad and Tobago is English, in our day to day discourse what we speak is a mélange of English with heavy French, Spanish, Hindi and Amerindian influences. You cannot know a place unless you learn its language.

At first, when I was still doing my MFA, I used to worry about whether anyone in America would want to read what I was writing. I used to worry that my work might be too highly seasoned with patois for some palates. And maybe it is. But as the stories began to be accepted and published by North American literary journals, I stopped worrying. Instead, I assumed that I had struck the right balance of authenticity and readability, and that there was something in the stories which transcended the strict rules of Standard English. American readers wanted to know the place. Q: Apart from curiosity about the culture and language of Pleasantview, are there any major themes which you think would resonate with a North American audience? Yes. One of the most topical issues of our time is migration.

The notion of picking up one's baggage and moving, seeking a new home, is a central and recurring theme in Pleasantview. From slum to suburbia, from village to town, from country to country - almost everyone in Pleasantview is moving. A person's physical baggage is almost always accompanied by psychological baggage and, in many cases, the traveller fails to realize he's carrying with him the very threat he intends flee. Q: Why a novel-in-stories and not a novel? I think because the stories came to me in such a random way over the course of the last six years. Short stories are a great way to learn and practice the craft of writing. So the core of the book is my MFA thesis from Lesley University, Cambridge, Mass. But as I grew, the collection grew. Other stories came later, as I got to know the characters better, and those really rounded out the collection and took it from loosely linked to being a novel-in-stories.