The Banana Boat Man

O.P.Grey a songwriter/producer’s first novel. Set from a third world country .From tragedy and despair .A young man trying to make ends meet in a world where he is forced to raise himself as the man of the house early in life as he has no choice as his father the bread winner was taken away from him as early as 11 years old, from politics and gun battle over political factions and the dons who run the area’s. Now he has two sisters and a sick mother depending on him to keep food on the table. He does not want to go down the same road as his father as he might end up the same place he is, “6” feet under the ground. So he is doing what he knows best “Hustle”. Travelling from port to port where he can buy cheap goods and cloth and sell at a profit. Still even then that is not enough to keep his family (mother and two sisters) alive and away from the thieves and robbers who would, rob and rape his sisters at gunpoint for their own amusement and follies. So he must figure a way out. Where he needs to go to seek a better opportunity and better life for his family. Is not another third world country. He needs the land of the free and the brave .The land of opportunity. England is too far as he might die of starvation before he even gets close. The closest place is the United States of America. So now he must risk his life for the lives of his loved ones. Even though he might die trying .It is a journey he has to make, he has no choices. Their lives as well as his depend upon this one choice in life. In a country where everything is for sale, the land of pirates (Henry Morgan) Shipping ports like Port Royal. He has no money or bank account for a visa and no sponsors or family to take him anywhere. He is all alone and must succeed at all costs on his own. He has to rely on his wits and survival skills from living and surviving in the ghetto, hope and pray that luck is on his side. Maybe, just maybe then he might make it.

Casting an intimate look at what one young man and many others are forced to do. When tragedy, Greif sets in from an early age. On every corner there is a women’s help group (single mothers, battered women, minority women and gay women). There are no help groups for young men, no role models as most of them are from broken and battered homes. Fathers either died or left early. So the women are widowed or single and trying to raise a man. Some can do the best they can. However you need a man to raise a man or if not from pure pressure alone he will make the wrong decisions. A woman cannot control an out of control man. Worse a young one still learning. Trying to make his way through this puzzle called life”. Now imagine one with no help at all”! This story is filled with Love, Joy, Excitement, adventure, Passion, Seduction but not without its equal side of Greif, Treachery, Hate, despair and disappointments’. It’s as if The Pirates of the Caribbean and a Hobbits tale met 50 shades of grey.

From a Pirates Port, comes great and immense struggle to find treasures in a land far, far away.

Sponsored by The Rainbow Association Inc.