The Jamaican Canadian writer discussed her book and extensive career on Bookends with Mattea Roach.
Talia Kliot · CBC Books · Posted: Nov 29, 2024
“Plot does not come easily to me” are not the words you’d expect to hear from Nalo Hopkinson, a fixture of the sci-fi and fantasy genres.
But for the Jamaican Canadian writer, known for crafting far-off worlds brimming with imagination, Caribbean folklore shapes the stories she tells.
“[Folktakes have] been told and retold for centuries,” she said on Bookends with Mattea Roach. “The plot is succinct and you can map it. So using the folktale as the spine of the story sometimes helps that way.”
In fact, Hopkinson sees folktales as the “precursors to science fiction and fantasy,” so it feels very natural to her to include them in her fiction.
“They are fantastical. They are political. They talk about how to live well with your neighbours. They talk about the abuses that people in power can do,” she said.
Those are all themes she covers in her latest novel, Blackheart Man, which takes place on the magical island of Chynchin, and draws from a Caribbean folktale told to scare children into behaving, called the Blackheart Man in Jamaica.
“It is so ubiquitous and it has this weight to it that it stuck with me since I first heard of it,” said Hopkinson.
“It’s this horrific story about this mysterious man who shows up in a black car or a black carriage, depending on what century you’re telling the story, and he hunts children and eats the living hearts out of their bodies.”
In the novel, the Blackheart Man’s sinister presence coincides with the arrival of colonizers trying to force a trade agreement — children start disappearing and tar statues come to life.
Veycosi, a mischievous and fame-seeking griot (poet and musician), fears that he’s connected with the Blackheart Man’s resurgence, and finds himself in over his head trying to stop him.
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