Kevin Jared Hosein Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Picture Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Kevin Jared Hosein
Kevin Jared Hosein was born in 1986 in Trinidad and Tobago in 1986 to an Indo-Trindadian family. As a young child, he was not initially interested in reading, however was way more into video games, particularly those that had story heavy plots to them.

Later on in his childhood, he got way more interested in writing and books, especially authors like Cormac McCarthy and Stephen King. Harold “Sonny” Ladoo’s 1972 novel “No Pain Like This Body” had a huge influence on his interest in writing and reading.

He obtained a degree in biology and environmental studies at the University of the West Indies at St. Augustine, since literature was not offered as a subject option at his secondary school.

“Passage” and “The King of Settlement 4” both won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, with the latter winning the regional category of the prize. “Littletown Secrets” was awarded the Best Children’s Book of 2013 by the Trinidad Guardian. “The Beast of Kukuyo” won second place for the Burt Award for Caribbean literature.

“The Monkey Trap” was featured in “Pepperpot: Best New Stories from the Caribbean” and was also shortlisted for the Small Axe Literary Prize.

“Littletown Secrets” is the first story collection and was released in 2013. Every single person in Littletown has a secret.

Problem is that there are no trustworthy ears on which these secrets can fall. One young little boy realizes this, and so starts his small business of keeping secrets for people.

He will hear anything that can be told for a fee of 25 cents per secret. From these secrets emerge some dark realizations about the troubles of the children in Littletown. They are the victims of neglect, loneliness, and bullying; all revealing themselves in the whispered stories.

Each of the kids that come to the secret keeper is tormented by these mystical creatures. These creatures lurk, just biding their time in the town’s shady walks and the hidden retreats.

“The Repenters” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 2016. When Jordan Sant (an infant) gets taken to the St. Asteria Home for Children after his parents are murdered, he sets out on this journey which is a constant struggle between his worst and best selves. One relationship, with a young nun the kids all call Mouse, awakens the possibilities of hope and love, however when Mouse abandons her calling and leaves the home, the world becomes a darker place after that.

He’s a barely a teen when he runs away from the home to scuffle for a living in the frightening underbelly of Port of Spain, and he reaches the lower depths of both himself and Trinidadian society.

“The Beast of Kukuyo” is the second stand alone novel and was released in 2018. Rune Mathura (age fifteen), for the second time in her life, comes face to face with a brutal murder when Dumpling Heera (her classmate) vanishes and eventually is discovered dead.

Dumpling’s murder pulls the rural and small village of Kukuyo into the national spotlight, revealing this darkness that is curdling in the town. However Rune knows that the memories of the cops and villagers are short. Inspired by her love of detective TV series, she launches an investigation of her own.

But, Rune quickly learns that real life is not at all the same as TV and neither evil nor justice appear in black and white. Her journey takes her along this bloody trail of chicken feather, down this muddy ravine and right into a grimy den where she finds dark secrets and this terror that is incredibly real.

In a gripping new book, Hosein topples the tropes about justice and truth created in TV shows and childhood detective novels like the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Along Rune’s journey, she learns that the road to justice can be paved with ill-intentions, and that the truth is always a complex thing.

The small and enclosed village is crafted excellently and it’s simply an interesting and nicely paced read. The narrative being in Trinidadian dialect helps authentically ground the characters and story.

“Hungry Ghosts” is the third stand alone novel and was released in 2023. A sweeping tale about two families colliding in 1940s Trinidad, and this chilling mystery which shows just how interconnected their lives really are.

Trinidad during the 1940s, close to the end of British colonialism and American occupation. On this hill that overlooks Bell Village sits the Changoor farm, where Marlee and Dalton Changoor live in luxury rather unrecognizable to those that reside in the farm’s shadow. Further down is the Barrack, this ramshackle building made from tin and wood, split up into rooms that are occupied by entire families. Among these families are the Saroops (Shweta, Hans, and their son Krishna, all three born from the barracks). Theirs are hard lives full of backbreaking work, devotion to their faith, grinding poverty, and this battle against nature and a social structure that is designed to keep them right where they are.

However after Dalton goes missing and Marlee’s safety gets compromised, farmhand Hans becomes lured by the promise of this handsome stipend to move to the farm as a watchman. While the mystery of Dalton’s disappearance plays out, the lives of the wealthy couple and those that live in the barracks down below become insidiously intertwined, their community is changed forever and in pretty shocking ways.

A singular and searing book of family, religion, class, and historical violence, and is rooted in Trinidad’s wild pastoral landscape and is inspired by oral storytelling traditions, “Hungry Ghosts” is deeply resonant of its place and time as it evokes the roots and ripple effects of linked histories and generational trauma; sacrifices, the lingering resentments, and longings which alter destinies, and the consequences of powerlessness. Rendered with harrowing beauty and lyrically told, this is a stunning piece of storytelling with an affecting mystery, from a blazingly talented author.

The title of this novel refers to the pretas (or hungry ghosts) of dead characters in the story.

Readers found this to be a deeply impressive and important novel, as it is linguistically gorgeous, psychologically profound, and narratively propulsive.