The Believers - by A K Herman (Paperback)

About the Book

In A. K. Herman's wondrous debut collection we meet predatory churches, babies born in secret and boys with wings. The Believers is at once poignant, subversive and haunting.

Book Synopsis

A. K.'s wondrous and shattering debut collection imbues people on the periphery with power hardly visible to outsiders -where no one conforms to type. In the title story, to leave a seemingly friendly and supportive church, a family must risk everything. In "The Iridescent Blue-Black Boy with Wings (After Márquez)," children find a winged boy in a seaside village in Tobago. In "Ready for the Revolution?" uncertain lovers play rough with identity politics, and are set on an unexpected path. In "Drink the Dew," love and wrath become one, while the young woman in "Inside," navigates a complicated business arrangement with her lover. In "Love," a scandalous affair produces a love child, born with a dark omen, while in "Exile," a pregnant teen from a staunchly religious family, is exiled to have her baby in secret. A gardener in "Love Story No. 8," falls for a rich man's daughter to disastrous ends. The Believers is at once poignant and subversive, utterly haunting and unforgettable.

Review Quotes

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 BOCAS OCM PRIZE FOR CARIBBEAN LITERATURE IN FICTION!

"Settings . . . are described in deft strokes . . . characters [conjured] with equal dexterity. Each story . . . delivers with integrity and verve . . . confidently and persuasively."

- 2025 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature Judges

". . . The Believers is a collective unsettling - an invitation to release yourself from the tales you think you know. Herman's debut collection of short stories calls up resolute washerwomen with defiance coded into their spines; inhuman winged boys whose horns gleam and whose flight promises reckonings; self-assured assistant professors velvet-lining their protests in protocols. These are undaunted players, powerful even in their acts of flinching and subterfuge, written with a startling immediacy." - Caribbean Beat

The Believers: Stories is a Goodreads Editors December Book Pick!

"The Believers is a compelling collection, with characters exploring their own power in multifaceted ways. Read it for a critique on culture and conformity." - Mslexia Magazine

"These stories, all resonating with quiet wisdom and heart are what short stories should be: an outsized reward for the reader's time. A. K. Herman has an observant eye; a keen understanding of time and place and their effects on the individual, and a storytelling style that adds a welcome voice to the rich Caribbean literary tradition. The Believers is a gift to lovers of short fiction everywhere." - Rémy Ngamije, author of The Eternal Audience Of One and Only Stars Know The Meaning Of Space

"With incisive prose, Herman dexterously renders each character with admirable nuance, delivering emotionally resonant, illuminating and indelible stories." - Mubanga Kalimamukwento, author of Obligations to the Wounded

"Herman's language reaches for you and makes you feel, amongst so many things, the dignity of . . . characters, whom we often overlook in the world. Your eyes can only stray from the pages for so long." - T. J. Benson, author of The Madhouse