Olympic Gardens is the winner of the 2009 Lorna Goodison Caribbean Award for Transformative Literature. The story is set in Kingston, Jamaica in the 1960’s. It’s a bildungsroman novel in which the author frames the psychological, moral, and educational profile of its main protagonist, Roderick Brissett, against a political and cultural backdrop in a newly independent Caribbean nation. Its universal themes of abandonment, abuse, friendship, literacy, and hope are central to the work. Within the abyss of harsh realities, Roderick must find strength and seek some semblance of joy that will help him to survive, grow, and find his place in the world.