It's not hard to see why this collection, first published in 1990, won both the Guardian and Commonwealth Writers' prize. The language is as full of surprises as Melville's characters. They are mostly from Guyana, a place "where the ghosts walked openly and brazenly in the streets. The blue eyes of a Dutch planter looked enquiringly out of the black face of the local midwife." Their language blends "proper" English that harks back to colonial days  slightly pompous, archly funny at times  with the rhythm and warmth of Caribbean diction. The world-view takes in Catholicism and shamanism. Shakespeare McNab conjuring up La Diablesse to win the favour of the vice-president, and Millie, desperate to stop her teeth falling out, finding salvation in a tree rather than her mother's Catholic God, are wonderfully funny creations. More unsettling is a shoplifter's attempt to have one night at home with her newborn before prison. Poverty and ill-luck abound, but the shape of this collection is essentially optimistic and energetic.