"So it was done. Signed and sealed. The end of one life, the beginning of another. With a good deal of sadness for so much of my life that had been wasted and misguided."

Show Me A Mountain by Kerry Young follows the life of Fay Wong, the daughter to a rich Chinese immigrant and a mother of proud African heritage. Growing up and living her life in 20th century Jamaica, Fay has to come to terms with the world she lives in, a world fueled by business, racial tension and a real threat of communism. As she grows older, she becomes wrapped up in all three worlds, to the point where she has to make a life-changing decision, one that could save herself and her family from considerable danger.

I must admit, I picked this book up on a bit of a whim. I have no knowledge whatsoever of Jamaica and it's history, so I half expected myself to get bored and/or confused whilst reading. But that was definitely not the case. Young's writing is engaging, faced paced and reader-friendly; not once did I have to re-read a passage or give Jamaica a google. It didn't take long before I was sucked into Fay's world - I read the whole book in 2 days (quite impressive for me!)

Show Me A Mountain deserves great praise for its characters. Not one is perfect, every character has significant flaws, just like the people you and I meet every day. These flaws get in the way of their lives, jeopardise them in some respects, and lead to interesting outcomes. I would like to go into these flaws in more detail, but I really don't want to give any surprises away!

I would imagine Show Me A Mountain will be classified as a work of historical fiction, as it is set in 20th century Jamaica and deals with communism (amongst other themes.) But I would also categorise it as literary fiction, one which deserves to be read by the masses - its on par with To Kill a Mockingbird. 

I urge you to put this on your holiday reading list this summer - you will come out the other side craving more internationally-set fiction.

(I was kindly given an advanced copy of Show Me  A Mountain by Bloomsbury Publishing via Netgalley.)

Beth x