As is so often the case with writing in the magical realist mode, glittering strangeness rubs up against trauma. Anise has healing hands Romanza can tell lies from truth and Xavier is the “macaenus”, an individual with an extraordinary intuition for flavour who must prepare an elaborate meal for each of the islands’ residents. This focus brings solidity to an expansive plot as it meanders towards a dramatic climax. She homes in on three disparate individuals whose trajectories connect over the course of one “strange day, full of surprises and moments with sharp teeth”. Into this bustling world, Ross incorporates a populous cast, ranging from graffitiing revolutionaries to dancing ghosts to sagacious sex workers and a wisecracking shock jock. Ross similarly recounts the extravagantly bizarre – descriptions of “three buttocked” youngsters and “butchers who taught their goats to meditate” – in a breezily unfazed voice.

When asked about the influences on his magical realism, Gabriel García Márquez cited his grandmother’s propensity for telling outlandish tales “with a brick face”. In the market, men walk about “criss-crossed with blood-splattered chickens” the hawkers’ urgent cries weave into intoxicating melodies. Lushly chromatic landscapes reminiscent of Ben Okri’s The Famished Road teem with tangled bougainvillea, “polymorphic butterflies” and trees whose blue fruit is covered with lines of poetry. Ross undertakes the task of world-building this trippy realm with tremendous gusto, wit and style. While the despotic Governor Intiasar ostensibly presides over the state, it is the Fatidique, an esoteric council of female visionaries, who really hold the reins of power. Some have prehensile tails that fluff up in response to injustice. The citizens of Popisho are just as remarkable: each possesses a special power, or “cors”. Houses morph, stretch, bend over backwards to accommodate their inhabitants’ whims. Here, clouds rain down torrents of physalises. A lthough the fictional archipelago of Popisho in Leone Ross’s third novel is imbued with a Caribbean sensibility, it is an entirely original place.

Popisho review