This is a very unusual kind of memoir. The narration is good. It is about personal experiences and about the lives of Carribean diaspora. Just that in between, it failed to hold the attention. Still not a bad listen at all. Something different indeed.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

3.5 stars.
Windward Family is an interwoven fiction and fact memoir that is very informative and managing to weave threads between non-personal and personal experiences and events. I enjoyed hearing much about the author and his journey especially the places he's travelled and experiences he's had as well as thoughts and conversations about topics such as race and personal identity especially being from a Carribean disaporsa viewpoint. I connected to some parts of this book really well, but other times, I felt the book lose its focus in places, but maybe that's just me. This was a very unique memoir in the aspect of combinations of fiction and fact, but overall, the author did a great job, and the narrator added to the essence of this book, too.

DNF’d. Great narrator and good beginning to the story. I just wasn’t griped, and wonder if it’s because it was on audio, maybe this one I should have read. I would still recommend this to friends who are interested in wind rush and would listen to another book with the same narrator.

This is a memoir/general fiction book, which I found really interesting.

Alexis Keir is a man who used to live in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent as a child. Twenty years later, he goes back there to find out more about his past, and to try to find people that he used to know. Once he finds his relatives there, he goes through the stories of other people who also had to leave Saint Vincent in the past. We are shown the lives of these lovely characters, and what happened to them.

The audiobook narrator was very good, and I liked his voice. Since a lot of the audiobooks I read are narrated by women, I was happy to hear a man's voice, for a change. He did a good job.

Highly recommended!

Many thanks to the author/narrator, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

I loved listening to this via Audiobook that to a preview from netgally.

It felt like I was conversing with the author, them telling me these exciting facts they had discovered on their travels. But like some conversations, I did feel that some points didn't need as much explanation as was given, nor were big words needed at some of the points they were used. A fascinating genre of mixing autobiographical with history taking personal experience with those that have traveled before and the reasons why.

A memoir intertwined with history. Well read and the narration keeps you gripped. One of those story's that keep you thinking after finishing it.

✨ Review ✨ Windward Family: An atlas of love, loss and belonging by Alexis Keir

First - I think this was a powerful memoir of the impact of diaspora over generations -- in family, love, pain, racial trauma, and so much more. I learned a lot and was fascinated by the stories Keir told here.

With that said, I think this was a super bold memoir that took some big risks in style and organization. I didn't dislike these choices but it made it much much harder to figure out in an audio format:

-it mixes nonfiction memoir with fictional anecdotes about real (I think?) people. It wasn't clear to me until the end that these were fictional and it was hard to keep track of all of these people and storylines that might have appeared only early in the book and at the end. I'm still so confused about all of this.

-it is very nonlinear, jumping in time and place. this might work better in print format where you can refer back but made it hard to sort out while listening.

-as a very place-based story and written in places I'm not very familiar with (Saint Vincent, New Zealand, and even rural UK), it was really challenging to follow where he was at in audio without a map (again, especially with the non-linear narrative.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3.25 stars)
Genre: memoir
Location: UK, New Zealand, Saint Vincent.
Pub Date: out now

Read this if you like:
⭕️ memoir about places that might be unfamiliar
⭕️ weaving together generational stories
⭕️ non-linear memoir
⭕️ BEAUTIFUL covers

Thanks to Thread and #netgalley for an advanced audio copy of this book!

'It took two decades for me to go in search of the parts of myself I had left behind in the Caribbean. What ghosts were waiting for me there? There was a thick, black journal in my flat, stuffed with letters, postcards, handwritten notes, and diary entries. For the first time in years, I opened it.'

This was an I retesting and refreshing way to write a memoir. It was heartbreaking in parts and achingly beautiful at the same time. I really appreciated learning about others lives that so different from my own. A very interesting read!

'It took two decades for me to go in search of the parts of myself I had left behind in the Caribbean. What ghosts were waiting for me there? There was a thick, black journal in my flat, stuffed with letters, postcards, handwritten notes, and diary entries. For the first time in years, I opened it.'

This was a really beautifully written unique memoir.
Upon returning to the island of St. Vincent, Alexis finds himself exploring the stories of others who have left the Caribbean island and what became of them in the larger world. Exploring out the fates of others who have left the island makes this an interesting, enthralling read.

Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

<3 This was brilliantly written! Between the reenactment of the Historical content intertwined with his memoir made it flow or felt like a period drama. It was heart wrenching and maddening. Black History that carry on into the collective generational trauma of BIPOC folks. It was one of the stories where I was wishing there was such a thing as a time machine so I can dispense some street justice. Theo Solomon's narration from a British accent of the White oppressor to a Caribbean Patois of the oppressed or enslaved for both genders was absolutely flawless! Yall know I am a book binger and I can not say enough on how this story was written so vividly! <3
#WindwardFamily #NetGalley #Enslavement #Trauma #vitiligo #stolenchildren #StVincent

This is an incredible memoir; an unusual mix of fact, reminiscence and fiction pulled into a single narrative. Rather than a straightforward autobiography, Alexis Keir takes the opportunity to reconnect with his homeland, St Vincent and creates a truly compelling narrative which looks at the displacement of people over hundreds of years.

I’m ashamed by the way many were treated; colonialism is odious and some of the stories recounted are truly heartbreaking. But, they are genuine human stories and should be told. History needs to be rewritten to reflect what it was really like and Weir has an eye for detail and a lyrical way of writing that really brings things to life. He is the voice of the past and these are forgotten lives whose story wouldn’t have been told. The essence is about identity, personal and racial and it’s a sweeping and compelling exploration. I was hooked. I loved the prose, the pace and the every story. A must for anyone interested in people or social history.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

A glorious mix of Alexis' own family history of migration to the UK, including his travel to live & work in New Zealand, North America and finally after two decades away a trip back to his birth land of Saint Vincent.
The traditions, the love and loss of family, struck a cord with me.
This ran alongside accounts of stories from those who suffered & succeed at the hands of the Empire rule.
The intertwined stories from past and present worked well.

3.75 stars

This memoir did many things right combining fiction and non-fiction – a narrative choice I had never seen before in a memoir –, mingling personal experience with the non-personal, and the inclusion of many worthwhile and interesting conversations about race and identity from a Caribbean diaspora perspective. It's also well-written.

However, what makes this book unique is also what made it lose some of its essence as a memoir in my opinion. Although Windward Family is very informative in the way it explores the trips the author has taken, especially to his native country of Saint Vincent, it felt too meandering and lost within itself at times... and when I'm reading a memoir I like to be up close and personal.

I'd recommend this book to those looking for a different kind of memoir, larger in scope, and with a variety of perceptions.

ARC provided by the Bookouture Audio and Netgalley, thank you

This was an interesting format for a memoir. I'm unsure if I got a bit lost of how the different people were connected, I think sometimes that can happen with an audiobook. But overall it was an interesting listen about lives very different from my own.

Thoughtful patchwork of Black diasporic life. Interweaving displacement, medical racism, enslavement, migration, barrel children, and homelessness with family love and care. Although the structure can feel a bit confusing as we jump around the different interweaving story, the payoff is touching. Weir manages to be empathetic and generous to people experiencing many different sides of being away from/parted from/left from family.

Thanks to Netgalley for access to advance copies of the e-book and the audiobook.

An atlas of love, loss and belonging sums up this memoir perfectly. Set in Luton, and the home counties it tells the story of one family who were brave and courageous to go and start a new life in another country. Leaving family and home was such a wrench yet the pull of responsibility and betterment cannot be ignored. Then there is the next generation who have no concept of the sacrifices made on their behalf, and the pressure to live one way through the domicile country whilst being brought up with a culture so strong it becomes your life. The characters of this family are so beautifully described and the countries involved are so well described. I particular loved the references to the Maoris and the sense of belonging when going 'home'. Home can be anywhere and you can still live away from home quite happily accepting the life you are fulfilling, but you know where you truly belong. I also liked the references to genealogy and the part that plays in our traits and character. Although this memoir is about an Anglo/Caribbean family, it could easily be Eastern European, Irish or African the same sentiment applies. Narration was excellent, it could have been the author telling you his story. Thank you #NetGalley for the audiobook to review.

A beautifully written book had my hooked from the beginning. Refreshing and informative to understand more about the journey many Caribbean’s made and about sacrifices made. In 2023 these accounts are providing a more balanced account of history which is so important. Living in the Home Counties I’m familiar with Marlow, High Wycombe and Luton so found it even easier to connect. I also learnt about George Alexander Grattan. Grateful for this as I think it’ll stay with me for a long time. Reminded me of how people were in awe of Hottentots Venus. Can’t begin to imagine how that would’ve felt being gawped at. Yet the author captured the sentiment and almost a familial love story of George and Mr Richardson. As for me I’m off to the National Portrait Gallery to witness and be part of history. Fab fab book.

This is part memoir and part loose fiction based around the authors learnings of the history of Saint Vincent, of children ripped from their families and the exploitation and abuse many met at the hands of the white people who invited them to Britain and treated them in the most inhumane ways.

Alexis Keir paints a picture so vivid that I could feel the sun on my face, I could smell the sea and taste the food. I loved reading how both his father and mother left their island on a promise of better things and met in England. A lot of the writing I found deeply upsetting and uncomfortable and we should feel this way. The poor child with vitiligo performing in the circus broke me. Truly a tale that brings the light and the shade to extreme.
A brilliant and well deserved 5 stars. The narration was perfect too.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook in return for an honest review.