Jamaica Kincaid's brother Devon Drew died of AIDS on January 19, 1996, at the age of thirty-three. The youngest of four children, highly intelligent, well read, and a charming, handsome, and seductive personality, he had also been involved in a murder at the age of fourteen, adopted the manner of a Rastafarian, and been a heavy user of drugs. A dreamer who aroused both love and anger, he died painfully and alone in his mother's house.

Jamaica Kincaid's incantatory, poetic, and shockingly frank recounting of her brother's story is also the story of her family on the island of Antigua, a constellation revolving around the powerful, sometimes threatening figure of the writer's mother. The unblinking investigation of a life that ended too early speaks volumes about the difficult truths at the heart of all families.