Book Description

A bird's eye view of life, love and bacchanal in the Caribbean - the likes you have never read before. Sunil "Sunny" Darsan seems to have been born into the idyllic family but all he wants to do is escape. His family's legacy is impressive: a grandfather who is a rags to riches icon and owner of the largest plantation in Trinidad and his parents who are the first Trinidadian couple to graduate as lawyers. This is a family that seems to have it all - wealth, power and a renowned family name. However, like all families, this one has its secrets. When Sunny's parents divorce and his grandfather dies, his father, Vijay, is left the plantation. Vijay's natural instincts come out as he shirks his paternal duties and pursues his major interests: womanizing and gambling. Sunny's mother struggles to keep him and his sister, Leila, clothed and fed while their father gambles and parties. Unfortunately, she can only protect them from so much and when Sunny and Leila visit their father at the plantation for a holiday, it's the end of their innocence. Sunny finds himself on a path of discovery of a painful secret that will affect him and his sister for the rest of their lives. Amidst the challenges of his childhood and emerging manhood, Sunny tries to survive, desperately searching for an avenue of escape from the dysfunction that is his life. Trials and Tribulations offers a window into life on the tropical island of Trinidad from the suburbs of Port of Spain to the cocoa plantations of the countryside, in addition to murder, deceit, adultery as well as racial tensions, all from the perspective an Indo-Trinidadian youth during the mid to late twentieth century.