" Ever Since We Small raises powerful nuanced questions: What does it mean to carry forward the memory of a people? Where does duty end and desire begin? And how do women shape their own lives in the shadows of history? This is a book about many things, foremost among them a tale of lives bound by blood and silence, a story that unearths the emotional aftermath of tragedies, threading it with the intimate, often unspoken realities of motherhood, longing, and survival. A sweeping, necessary novel on what it means to be human."-- Krystal A. Sital , author of Secrets We Kept: Three Women of Trinidad "In this intimate exploration of voices and pain, Celeste Mohammed weaves all of the complexities and contradictions of Indo-Caribbean identity and expression into some unforgettable characters. Through generations of loss and gain we are carried along in language as varied and important as the span of time and influences themselves. Ultimately enriched. Ever Since We Small wraps truths and trauma with loving care."-- Oonya Kempadoo , winner of the 2024 Guyana Prize for Literature, past winner of the Casa de las Américas Prize "Let us allow that the rich, ripe language of Celeste Mohammed's ten narrative stories is an innovative kind of brilliant poetic rendering, and say that Ever Since We Small is an epic work that fleshes out and completes Harold Sonny Ladoo's No Pain Like this Body .

She has accomplished the portrayal of a legacy of drama begun, in this case, with one woman's Kala Pani crossing and worked through generations, culminating in the unique and too-real racial complexities of a Caribbean present. Her empathetic handling of voice and crystal-clear imagery speak of a writer we must watch closely and treasure."-- Shani Mootoo , author of Oh Witness Dey! and Polar Vortex.