... stellar ... [Persaud] has taken the spirit of Walcott’s poem and exploded it into a bighearted prose narrative about an unconventional family, fear, hatred, violence, chasing love, losing it and finding it again just when we need it most ... we smell the food of the Caribbean, sit in the traffic, enjoy the sun, feel the remnants of colonial oppression pressing down on struggling citizens ... Through her tender eye, we see full characters leaning on one another to better understand the world and themselves. We wish our families were more like theirs ... it’s in the second half that the novel’s heart lies, as a secret revealed about the nature of Sunil’s death threatens to crumble this makeshift family ... In lesser hands, the plot of Love After Love could have fallen into melodrama ... But Persaud never loses control ... That said, the writing can at times feel too restrained. Just when we want to hang out a beat longer in the minds of these wonderful characters, Persaud ends the chapter or scene, throws us into another perspective ... Great books about love, like this one, feel like precious and impossible gifts. We should cherish the writers who provide them.

Persaud has a knack for finding the sublime in the ordinary: in her hands the quotidian details of even apparently 'small' lives lead to flashes of pure truth ... the language is colloquial, with both narrative and dialogue soaked in an ear-catching Trinidadian dialect. The prose is playful and rhythmic, seeming to beat its own drum, so that at times you don’t read the novel so much as hear it. You sit in its company while it takes you into its confidence ... One of the reasons Love After Love is so delightful is that it reads like a modern meditation on the different kinds of love as catalogued by the ancient Greeks, crossed with the characters’ deliciously gossipy self-reflection. Persaud gives us a captivating interrogation of love in all its forms, how it heals and how it harms, the twists and torments of obsession (mania), sex and romance (eros), family (storge), friendship (philia), acceptance or rejection by the community, and so on. But much like the Derek Walcott poem from which it takes its title, the novel is ultimately concerned with the possibilities of that elated and oddly elegiac moment when we finally come to love ourselves.

Persaud’s book is a memorable, moving account of wounded people who come together to create an alternative family, a refuge where they can heal ... Persaud offers readers not only the expected doubles, roti and music the twin island republic is famous for but also vivid descriptions of insular communities, intimate friendships and Hindu religious practices and mysticism. The joy of this novel is in the way that it savors language and life’s sensory pleasures; when Betty cooks cascadoux curry, the reader’s mouth waters for the food she serves with love. Persaud captures the gorgeous rhythms of Trinidadian speech and presents the bawdy humor, wit and buoyancy Trinis are known for ... There is much to admire in Love After Love. It will be a pleasurable read for anyone who has tried and failed in love, marriage, friendship and parenting. This novel reminds readers of why we go to books in search of answers to life’s great questions, among them how to demand more of our lovers and ourselves, how to guide the children in our lives and how to grieve our losses and our mistakes.

It’s no surprise that BBC Radio loved her writing, as Persaud’s rich prose is first-person, voice-led and dances to the rhythm and sounds of Trinidad – a dream to listen to and read. I say 'listen to', because the sentences speak to you, are translated into speech in your head. The cuisine appears before your eyes, the tastes on the tip of your tongue, too, and that, combined with the sights, smells and sounds of the island so vividly described by the author envelop you in an immersive storytelling experience ... Persaud lets us know right from the beginning that she won’t flinch from the worst of human behaviour but will describe, graphically, at times, scenes other authors might shy away from ... Don’t be put off, as the novel is funny too, and full of life ... Nothing comes easy to our characters; nothing is straightforward in their messy lives. It is that messiness that marks Persaud’s novel as terribly human; loneliness, the craving for love, the failures and tragedies alongside the pleasures of food and flesh and the joys of human relationships ... Persaud now lives between London and Barbados, but her voice is pure Trinidad, in all its charm, complexity, musicality and earthy vibrancy.

...engaging and vibrant ... Amid all the sorrow...Ms Persaud’s novel is a delight. It is written in a lilting patois that sings from the page, and it is full of warmth and beauty. Mr Chetan—as good as a father to Solo—wants the best for the boy: 'He mustn’t go through life being ’fraidy ’fraidy.' Mr Chetan has learned that himself the hard way; it is a lesson for the reader, too.

Born in Trinidad and educated in Britain, Persaud announced herself by winning the 2018 BBC National Short Story award. In these pages she portrays her homeland with a mixture of dewy-eyed affection and despondent solicitude ... With its unabashed sentimentalism and soap opera-style plot themes — deadbeat dads, family grudges, forgiveness and redemption — Love After Love falls squarely into the melodrama genre and succeeds on those terms. Persaud is a talented and engaging storyteller; narration and dialogue are brisk and lively, with liberal sprinklings of Trini slang ... The novel crams in a huge amount of positive messaging, making a remarkably thorough sweep of socially marginalised groups: victims of domestic violence, gay people, migrant workers and self-harming youngsters are sympathetically represented. Persaud’s heart is clearly in the right place, but there is something to be said for subtlety and getting your point across by stealth, rather than blunt, earnest force.

... your passport to Trinidad for the tale of one small found family and all the different shades of love that can imprison and sustain us ... The backdrop for the intertwining of these relationships — the island of Trinidad — is almost a character itself, given a kind of dispersed sentience through Persaud’s exquisite descriptions. In prose so effortless one imagines the author unscrewing the lid of a jar and simply pouring it out onto the page, Love After Love treats the reader to a sensory riot ... You’ll feel the heat of the equatorial sun on your skin, see the hot dazzle of white before your retinas adjust. The sweet flesh of cascadoux will sit on your tongue like a familiar phrase, while your eyes will water at the fiery aroma of pimento peppers dropped in hot oil ... But Persaud’s facility with language would be a mirage of flash and glimmer if it weren’t paired with an instinct for the human condition that comes through from one character to the next, each sharing the same lived-in Trinidadian dialect but bearing their own distinct voices, hearts, and minds ... Rarely are platonic and familial love given the vibrancy and immediacy they are here, but as perspectives shift among Betty, Solo, and Mr. Chetan, we’re compelled toward an urgent understanding that the love of comfort and certainty is as important as that of turbulent desire ... is an escape worth pursuing, wherever summer finds you. If you’re yearning to run for unfamiliar terrain this time of year, the words on these pages may sharpen that ache. But take heart, dear reader: Ingrid Persaud’s story will transport you, at least for now.

Like Nicole Dennis-Benn's Patsy, one of the best books of last summer, Love After Love offers both a window into Caribbean literature and a wider lens on immigration, race, and sexuality. Mostly, though, it's just a great story: funny, tender, and true.

This novel by Trinidadian author Persaud...winner of the 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, explores self-harm, sexuality, trauma, loneliness, and the idea of home ... Writing in vibrant Trinidadian dialect, Persaud renders her characters with great empathy and care. If the novel’s structure feels a bit uneven (with the second section dragging a bit), the ending gives readers some much-needed relief. A harrowing domestic drama full of heart.

Persaud’s auspicious debut traces the gut-wrenching lives of a makeshift Trinidadian family over the past two decades ... In chapters alternately narrated by Solo, Betty, and Chetan in vibrant Trinidadian dialect, Persaud expertly maps the trio’s emotional development and builds a complicated yet seamless plot full of indelible insights and poignant moments. This affecting family saga shines brightly.