Beyond the Rose Hedge is a fictional tale set at an actual place that existed in time. Since the Author had little success in retracing her family roots, she wrote a story to explain the history that was lost. A story of kinship and connection that persists across oceans, generations, circumstances, and time. When family is all that one has, it is easy to realise that family is all that you need. However, while blood is usually thicker than water, water sustains life, allowing blood to flow. Resistance and rebellion are not always characterised by bloody conflict, sometimes, silence is war and losing battles may simply delay rather than deny victory.
Though set during a historic period where the enslavement of Africans existed and on an island that was thus colonised, the story is less about the institution of slavery and more about two families coexisting on opposites sides of the spectrum. It is purely entertainment, a history written to replace one that has been lost. A tale about kinship, love, hate, subtlety, survival and resilience. The story contains some fantasy and some reality while remaining fictional.
The Nazari family lives on one side of the border and the Carter family on the other side. Both families have children that grow up together while living parallel lifestyles. When teenagers from opposing sides fall in love with each other, a structure that seemed set in stone quickly crumbles. Thus, this is a story about two opposing families joined by fate and connected in incomprehensible ways. Love, lies, lust, fantasy, power, oppression, and retribution collide on a Barbadian plantation in the eighteenth century. When the smoke clears, only truth remains.