Books from The Bahamas

Authentic Bahamian Cooking by Dr D.M.Q. Johnson is a recipe collection focused on dishes native to the Bahamas, an archipelago of over 700 islands stretching southeast of Florida across the western Atlantic. The book gathers preparations that reflect the islands' coastal food culture, where conch, lobster, grouper, and tropical fruit appear in many forms. Conch alone turns up in salads, chowders, fritters, bisques, stewed dishes, and a coconut-based variation, showing how central this single shellfish is to everyday Bahamian cooking.

Beyond seafood, the collection covers curried chicken, curried mutton, and mutton souse, a vinegar-and-citrus broth common across the Caribbean. Side dishes and staples include pigeon peas and rice, peas soup with dumplings, and johnny cake, a simple pan bread with roots in earlier Caribbean and American cooking traditions. Desserts and sweets draw on local ingredients such as guava, mango, sweet potato, coconut, peanut, and tamarind. Guava duff, a steamed dessert particular to the Bahamas, sits alongside guava cheese cake, benny cake, peanut cake, and several rum-based cakes made with pineapple. The recipes as listed suggest a home-cooking approach, emphasizing traditional preparations rather than restaurant-style presentation.

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Life on a Rock is a memoir by K. Alison Albury about five years spent living on Highborne Cay, a small island in the Exuma chain of the Bahamas. The author, referred to as Kate, moved to this remote cay where there was no doctor, no police force, and no emergency services. The book describes what daily life actually looked like in a place most outsiders would picture only as a tropical getaway.

Highborne Cay sits in the northern Exumas, a string of over 360 islands and cays stretching southeast from Nassau. Many of these cays are uninhabited or home to only a handful of people. The isolation that makes the landscape appealing to visitors also defines its risks. Without nearby medical care or law enforcement, ordinary problems could quickly become serious, and the book recounts situations where self-reliance was not optional but necessary.

The memoir focuses on the practical realities of living in such a setting: managing danger, solving problems with limited resources, and adjusting expectations shaped by life on a larger landmass. Albury writes from direct experience, and the account draws its detail from specific events rather than general impressions of island living.

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Chris Angostura comes from a wealthy family in Freeport, a city on Grand Bahama Island. He has no need for work and no particular ambitions. Alongside Shark, the son of his former nanny and his closest companion since childhood, Chris fills his days with sailing, diving, and drinking. The two drift through a routine of nightlife and easy pleasures, surrounded by warm water and empty hours. Brian Antoni sets the novel in a version of the Bahamas where privilege has curdled into restlessness, and where having everything available makes nothing feel worthwhile.

The story shifts when Chris meets Robin, a conceptual artist who has come to the islands for reasons she does not readily share. Unlike the people in his usual circle, Robin pulls away the closer he gets. Chris eventually learns that she is searching for an alternative treatment for cancer that is spreading quickly through her body. Her determination to stay alive stands in sharp contrast to the careless way Chris and Shark have been spending theirs.

The novel uses its island setting to frame a tension between abundance and purpose. Freeport, originally developed as a tax-free trade zone in the 1950s, serves here as a fitting backdrop for characters caught between comfort and self-destruction.

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