The Story
Magnificent stories about Caribbean immigrants navigating the emotional terrain of girlhood, displacement, longing, and identity across continents.
Layaway Child is a luminous debut short story collection by award-winning writer Chanel Sutherland that explores the emotional landscapes of Caribbean families fractured by migration, especially the harrowing yet resilient journeys of Black girls and women. In lyrical, linked stories, Sutherland traces the lives of mothers working abroad as housekeepers and nannies, and the children they left behind.
From lush island childhoods marked by absence and community, to the cold, alienating spaces of Canadian cities, Layaway Child captures the complexity of growing up between worlds. A mother, newly arrived in Montreal, is kept from speaking to her daughters by her own mother's misguided attempt to help her let go of home. A schoolgirl becomes a spectacle under the gaze of white classmates. A young girl's curiosity about the cosmos collides with the confusion of puberty. Sutherland brings deep compassion and sharp insight to each moment, revealing both the beauty of island life and the harshness of immigration's toll.
Author: Chanel Sutherland
Publisher: Astoria
Published: 05/12/2026
Pages: 296
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 6.90h x 5.50w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781487013639
Review Citation(s):
Booklist 04/01/2026
Shelf Awareness 01/01/0001
About the Author
Sutherland, Chanel: -
CHANEL SUTHERLAND is a Vincentian Canadian writer of fiction and creative nonfiction. She won the 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, which she was also longlisted for in 2022. Chanel is also the winner of the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize and the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize and was named one of CBC Books 30 Writers to Watch in 2022. Chanel lives in Montreal.
Description
Magnificent stories about Caribbean immigrants navigating the emotional terrain of girlhood, displacement, longing, and identity across continents.
Layaway Child is a luminous debut short story collection by award-winning writer Chanel Sutherland that explores the emotional landscapes of Caribbean families fractured by migration, especially the harrowing yet resilient journeys of Black girls and women. In lyrical, linked stories, Sutherland traces the lives of mothers working abroad as housekeepers and nannies, and the children they left behind.
From lush island childhoods marked by absence and community, to the cold, alienating spaces of Canadian cities, Layaway Child captures the complexity of growing up between worlds. A mother, newly arrived in Montreal, is kept from speaking to her daughters by her own mother's misguided attempt to help her let go of home. A schoolgirl becomes a spectacle under the gaze of white classmates. A young girl's curiosity about the cosmos collides with the confusion of puberty. Sutherland brings deep compassion and sharp insight to each moment, revealing both the beauty of island life and the harshness of immigration's toll.
Author: Chanel Sutherland
Publisher: Astoria
Published: 05/12/2026
Pages: 296
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 6.90h x 5.50w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781487013639
Review Citation(s):
Booklist 04/01/2026
Shelf Awareness 01/01/0001
About the Author
Sutherland, Chanel: -
CHANEL SUTHERLAND is a Vincentian Canadian writer of fiction and creative nonfiction. She won the 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, which she was also longlisted for in 2022. Chanel is also the winner of the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize and the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize and was named one of CBC Books 30 Writers to Watch in 2022. Chanel lives in Montreal.
