title: The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories: Reissue (Oxford Books of Prose)
author:  Stewart Brown 
description: <br />"Caribbean authors come from a multicultural tradition, and this wide-ranging anthology collects 52 stories representing more than a century's worth of 'pan-american' short fiction. Although the various authors explore similar themes of history, race, social justice, identity and migration, they do so in diverse ways."--<em>The Orlando Sentinel</em>
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  ![Cover for The Housing Lark](../images/9780525505747_cover.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  PENGUIN ![](../images/penguin.jpg) CLASSICS
  
  
  THE HOUSING LARK
  
  
  SAM SELVON (1923–1994) was a Caribbean novelist and short-story writer of East
  Indian descent, known for his vivid depictions of life in the West Indies and
  elsewhere. Born in Trinidad, he came to public attention during the 1950s with
  a number of other Caribbean writers. During World War II, Selvon worked as a
  wireless operator for the Royal Navy on ships that patrolled the Caribbean,
  while also writing poetry in his spare time. When the war ended, he went to
  work at the _Trinidad Guardian_ , before eventually moving to London in 1950
  and clerking for the Indian Embassy. Soon after, in 1952, he published his
  first novel, _A Brighter Sun_ , followed by eight other novels, among them _I
  Hear_ _Thunder_ (1962), _The Housing Lark_ (1965), _Moses Ascending_ (1975),
  and _Moses Migrating_ (1983); a collection of short stories titled _Ways of