Synopsis of Novel
The Silver Lining is the story of every youth who struggles against the humiliating social stigmas imposed by poverty, and against prevailing political systems that expediently facilitate such poverty, to eventually rise and redeem themselves with high honors.
Billy Deen and his sister, Betty are poor, fatherless high school teens, struggling to gain good grades and academic recognition to compensate for their poverty, Billy doubling as a fisherman/ breadwinner of the family, and Betty, home-keeper and caretaker of their ailing mother, Emily. Their father, Rohan, disappeared mysteriously soon after the world war had ended.
Despite their circumstances, a bright and solid future is assured on account of their diligence, upright upbringing, and academic brilliance.
That is, until the princess Diane appears. Diane, who, "must have done some wonderful favor to the gods, and in return, was bestowed with the loveliness of an angel amongst mortals," takes a transfer to their school, is placed in Billy's class, and even occupies Billy's own seat. Diane's father, a good friend of Billy's father during the war, had also suddenly and mysteriously become one of the richest men in the country.
Love germinates. And even though Billy, tumultuously ambivalent, considers her the enemy, their love blossoms passionately. But only briefly. Jealousy and treachery quickly incubate, finding fertile grounds in the Deen's poverty and Billy's precocious and anti-establishment disposition which had always troubled the plantation administration.
Eventually, a humble family, already once broken, again faces destruction. A conspiracy of community leaders with plantation politics scapegoats Billy, expels him from school, and banishes him from Wales. As he departs in exile, his mother cries, running behind the bus, but his sister stands stoic and tearless.
Thus, the fortunes of a young man who later found his father's body in the pursuits of his profession, plays out against the historical background of cruel colonial control by sugar of every aspect of life on the plantation.
Awarded the Guyana Prize for Literature, and for its striking literary devices, high morals, and lessons of life, the book was recommended as reading material for all secondary students.