The Twelfth House

Name: The Twelfth House
Price: 60 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9781645662037

Robert de la Chevotiere

$60

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Erewhon Books
29 September 2026

Fantasy

In the aftermath of Haiti's independence, the vengeful unborn spirit of a child named Etta draws her father from the Bight of Biafra onto a slave ship bound for the harshly colonized Caribbean island of Dominica in this lush historical novel infused with magical realism and rooted in West African mythology for readers of Ta-Nehisi Coates' The Water Dancer and River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer.

1794, Benin, Africa. Bako is one of 162 men stolen from their homeland. After a harrowing voyage across the sea, penned like livestock, and enduring brutal beatings, Bako survived when many of his fellow countrymen did not. On the Caribbean island of Dominica, he is sold to William Blackwell, sentenced to a life of forced servitude on a sugarcane plantation. Rechristened Ivan, his true identity and defiant nature cannot be tamed. When an indigenous Kalinago woman named Mary is threatened by Blackwell's cruel son, Bako fights back, escaping with her into the mountains-where she will give birth to their daughter.

Etta is an ogbanje, an unborn soul, trapped in a cycle of conception and death in the wombs of one family. She is not of this Earth, existing among the stars, bearing the names of Queen Mother and Iyoba. A gifted siren, her voice unleashes ethereal songs that consume listeners with fear. Her desperate desire to live compelled Bako into the hands of his captors-and his fateful meeting with Mary. They are but vessels brought together to ensure Etta's birth into the mortal world.

But Etta bears the physical scars of her many spiritual deaths. The Kalinago do not accept her into their clan. Her father suspects the truth of his daughter's origins. And the landowners and tradesmen who enslave Etta's people will feel her wrath as she compels rebellions, the one within, the gravest.

By: Robert de la Chevotiere
Imprint: Erewhon Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 210mm, Width: 140mm,
Weight: 567g
ISBN: 9781645662037
ISBN 10: 1645662039
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 29 September 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Robert de la Chevotiere is an Afro-Caribbean immigrant to Canada, who teaches French and English language arts. He is a member of the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia and has recently had a poem published in Arc Poetry Magazine's 2021 fall issue.

Reviews for The Twelfth House

Praise for Tall Is Her Body “The deeply moving sophomore novel from de la Chevotière (We Were Not Kings) is a magical realist coming-of-age story chronicling a young man’s life in the West Indies…De la Chevotière’s fluid and atmospheric writing easily draws readers into both the lush setting of Dominica and Fidel’s inner world. Themes of identity, colonialism, and racism bolster the sprawling plot, and though the magical elements are light, they fascinate. This is sure to impress.” —Publishers Weekly on Tall Is Her Body “Tall Is Her Body is a memorable, generous, and vivid addition to a Caribbean lineage inaugurated by the likes of Kincaid, Selvon, Roumain and Lovelace. Tender and unsparing, de la Chevotière’s triumphant entrance more than meets the bill. A soaring work.” —Canisia Lubrin, acclaimed poet, editor, and author