Jamaica Kincaid describes a vast and primordial landscape—a rushing river; green, green grass; a simultaneous sun and moon eliminating shadows, seasons, and cold. This terrain is waiting for someone’s gaze, touch or tread to give it meaning, but who can give it and what will that meaning be?

Kincaid’s lush, lyrical, and almost biblical prose is unmistakable in “At the Bottom of the River,” the title story from her first book. Kincaid considers the threads that tie together many of her works, like the nuances of a mother-daughter relationship and the centrality of place and landscape, while asking vital questions about truth, death, and selfhood.