Ingrid Persaud Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Ingrid Persaud is an excellent author from Trinidad and Tobago. She likes to write fiction, contemporary, and romance novels. Persaud’s career is comprised of two full-length novels and one short story. Her books have helped her to win several literary awards. In addition to being an award-winning writer, Persaud is also an academic and artist. Her debut book was a short story called The Sweet Shop. It won the 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and the 2018 National Short Story Award from BBC. In the short story, Persaud has described the story of a Trinidadian man, who reunites with his dad with the help of chocolate. In 2020, the author came up with her second novel called Love After Love. The Random House published it in the USA, while the UK release was carried out under the banner of Faber.

Author Persaud has an unconventional family’s story in the book. It revolves around Betty, her son named Solo, and their lodger named Mr. Chetan. The family is torn apart due to the accidental revelation of a terrible secret. The novel forces the readers to consider the wonderful outcomes of human forgiveness. It also gives hope to all those who have loved and lost and are looking to find their way back. Apart from writing novels and short stories, Persaud has penned articles for several magazines, including Pree, Prospect, and Granta. Though Persaud has received a great amount of success in her writing career, she did not start writing until she entered her 40s. Before that, she worked as a professor of law at the London based King’s College.

Persaud has even worked as a project manager and visual artist. She holds a law degree from the London School of Economics and has also studied fine arts at Central St. Martins and Goldsmith College. Currently, author Persaud resides in London and Barbados. She is happily married and resides with her loving husband, their twin sons, a couple of rescue dogs, and a feral chicken. As of now, Persaud seems to be preoccupied with her new novel. She is expected to finish the writing part soon and publish it for her eagerly waiting fans all over the world.

Although Persaud has lived in the UK for a long time, she still considers herself as a Trinidadian at heart. She has spent the first 18 years of her life in her country of birth. After that, Persaud has lived in Barbados and London. For the question of how she ended up becoming a writer, Persaud says that she was hustling with the idea of making a career in the field of writing for many years. As she was trying her hand in many things, she could not find inner peace. It was only after she decided to move to Barbados that she found her creative talent as well as the much needed inner peace. The idea of writing fiction filled her with extreme joy. Also, the job of writing was portable and allowed her to keep doing other things. Several years later, Persaud quit everything else and settled down to write full time.

Persaud claims that she is always working with one or two ideas. Even when she is not writing, she is thinking about what to write next. This keeps her busy and filled with amazing ideas all the time. Persaud likes to advise aspiring authors to respect their work and themselves. She asks them to maintain discipline and spend as many hours as possible at their desk. Persaud believes in order to succeed as a writer, one has to turn writing into a habit. Also, reading in spare time helps with the writing cause. And so, one must also look forward to reading as much as possible. Persaud loves her work and wishes to come up with a lot more amazing books in the coming years. She intends to expand her fan-base to a large extent and establish herself in the ranks of the top-rated authors of this generation.

The debut novel written by author Ingrid Persaud is entitled ‘If I Never Went Home’. It was released by the Blue China Press in 2013. This novel revolves around a family melodrama featuring the intersecting worlds of the two main characters named Tina and Bea. Tina is a young girl residing in Trinidad, while Bea, also a Trinidadian, lives in Boston. The greatest strengths of this novel are its vivid and intimate depiction of Trinidad’s daily life and the memorable characters depicted by Persaud. Bea is shown as a girl who witnesses the separation of her parents at a young age. When she decides to go with her mom, her father disowns her.

As the days pass by, Bea realizes that her mother is selfish and ends up having a strained relationship with her. The family turmoil takes a great toll on Bea, who suffers from depression and attempts to end her life. While lying on the hospital bed, Bea decides to overcome her troubles by becoming a psychologist. Slowly, her depression also gets cured. Tina is depicted as living happily with her mom. One day, her mother meets with an accident and dies. As Tina does not have a father, her grandmother takes her under her care. As Tina grows older, she becomes rebellious. As she begins disrespecting her grandmother, the relationship between them also becomes strained.

Another excellent book penned by Persaud is called ‘Love After Love’. It was published in March 2020. The primary characters mentioned in this novel include Mr. Chetan, Betty Ramdin, Sunil, Solo, etc. Persaud has set the book in New York City. Initially, it is shown that following the death of her abusive husband, Betty Ramdin invites her colleague named Mr. Chetan to live in her house as a lodger. With the passage of time, Mr. Chetan, Betty, and her son, Solo, form an unconventional bond as a family. They begin to depend on each other and also develop mutual love and respect. When Betty confides in Mr. Chetan one night, their conversation is overheard by Solo. He also comes to know about a secret that affects him deeply. The despair makes Solo move away from his mother and take shelter in New York City. This decision of her son makes Betty devastated. In spite of living separately, Betty and Solo are buoyed by Mr. Chetan’s continuing friendship and love. But, when his own secret gets uncovered, Mr. Chetan experiences heartbreaking repercussions.