The Girl from Lamaha Street: A Guyanese girl at a 1960s English boarding school and her search for belonging

By Sharon Maas

Perhaps it's true that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Perhaps it's true that you only know what you truly love when you no longer have it. But I wouldn't have known any of this if I hadn't left it all behind to discover where my home truly was...

Growing up in British Guiana in the 1950s, Sharon Maas has everything a shy child with a vivid imagination could wish for. She spends her days studying bugs in the backyard, eating fresh mangos straight from the tree and tucked up on her granny's lap losing herself in books.

But with her father campaigning for Guiana's independence and her mother away for work, there's a void in Sharon's heart, and she craves rules and structure. The books she devours give her a glimpse of life in a faraway country: England. And although none of the characters in these books look like her, her insatiable curiosity leads Sharon to beg to be sent to boarding school.

Life at a conservative, Christian school is quite different from Sharon's liberal, atheist upbringing. Girls march silently and single file along corridors and earn badges for deportment. There are twice-daily hymns, grace before and after meals and mandatory bedside prayers. And, all the girls are posh and white, while Sharon is the only one with dark skin. Will she ever fulfil her dream of horseback riding over green hills and going on adventures like her literary heroes? And has she truly found what she was looking for in this chilly corner of the world, thousands of miles away from home?

You will be swept off your feet by the unputdownable story of Sharon Maas's extraordinary childhood in British Guiana and England, a beautiful and inspiring coming-of-age tale of self-discovery, determination and chasing your dreams.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 180019725X
• ISBN13: 9781800197251
• Release Date: April 2022
• Publisher: Thread Books
• Length: 286 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Memoir

This is a Memoir. When I read a Memoir I want to get totally pulled in, and I want the story to touch my heart. This memoir felt like a bunch of facts into a book, but I wanted more feelings behind the words. I enjoyed the first little bit, but after the first little bit it got heavy with facts and the emotions got lost in all the facts. This is not the worst memoir I have read, but it is not the best either. I received an ARC of this book. This review is my own honest opinion about the book like all my reviews are.