Ingrid Persaud will launch a new novel at NGC Bocas Lit Fest.

The Lost Love Songs of Boysie Singh is set in Trinidad in the 1940s and 50s.

It tells the story of the notorious gangster – who was hanged in 1957 for murder – and four women whose lives were shaped by their proximity to him.

It is being described as a story of persistence and survival, and a portrait of a society in rapid evolution.

Persaud says, “Although Boysie Singh was executed well before my birth, the terror he invoked stalked my childhood. Every time I touched the text, it touched back. Within my own family in Cedros I uncovered stories. And there was the time Boysie Singh preached to a crowd outside my maternal great-grandmother’s shop in Arouca.”

Persaud will be a headline author at the 2024 NGC Bocas Lit Fest, which runs from April 25th to 28th.

She will appear on April 27th, in the midst of a packed programme of events.

Festival attendees can also look forward to seeing and hearing authors like Trinidadian-Canadians Dionne Brand and Rabindranath Maharaj, Haitian-American Edwidge Danticat, and St. Lucian-Canadian Canisia Lubrin — all acclaimed prizewinners.