Caryl Phillips was born in St Kitts and now lives in London and New York. He has written for television, radio, theatre and cinema and is the author of three works of non-fiction and seven novels. Crossing the River was shortlisted for the 1993 Booker Prize and he has won the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, as well as being named the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 1992 and one of the Best of Young British Writers 1993.
A compassionate, forceful and profoundly moving revelation * Scotland on Sunday * [T]here are gems of impassioned writing quilted within this ambitious cross-cultural novel of loss and reconciliation * Sunday Times * Epic and frequently astonishing * The Times * Crossing the River is dense with event and ingeniously structured. It requires concentration and is worth it * Independent * An ambitious exploration of oppression, loss and reconciliation that employs a collage of styles and ranges across continents and centuries -- Nicci Gerrard * Observer * [Phillips is] a master ventriloquist, giving immediacy and voice to an impressive range of vivid characters about whom the reader cares deeply... Wonderfully individual * San Francisco Chronicle * Caryl Phillips' exploration of the relations betweeen black and white is nuanced, humane and sypathetic. And his deep awareness of the historical process is combined with an exceptionally intelligent prose style - clear, unencumbered and compassionate * New Statesman and Society *