Zan Mcdowell

The Somnambulist Zan Mcdowell

Rooted in Carib mythology and dream interpretation, two people are haunted by similar recurring nightmares. Fate brings them together where their lives unravel tragically. In Trinidad a Carib-Amerindian boy has a recurring nightmare of being hacked to death. A Hindu priest recommends a change of scenery so he goes to Barbados. There he accidentally meets a female English student from Cambridge who suffers the very same nightmare although neither realises this. They are drawn to each other and fall in love. Before long, two visitors, one from each of their homelands, unexpectedly show up and misunderstanding results in murder by the very means envisioned in their respective dreams. Through prose and poetry this tale celebrates and mourns a dying, marginalised Amerindian tribe in the Caribbean. It reflects in part the culture of the Caribbean and its attitude towards the spirit world. The mythological Maboya of the Caribs guides the protagonist and the reader through a magical and sometimes terrifying world. The Barbados Advocate Newspaper Review -- The Somnambulist is a book "to be bought, mulled over and shared . . . . Spiritualists will find it interesting, classic romantics may encompass it with the bitter sweet, and students-of-life will embrace it readily."