It is 1981. Jean Landing secretly plans to flee her beloved Jamaicathe only home her family has ever known, a place now rife with political turmoil. But before she can make her final preparations, she receives devastating news: Lana, her sister, is dead. The countrys state of emergency leaves no time to arrange a proper funeral. Even Jeans mother, Monica, who hadnt spoken to Lana in more than a decade, cannot fully embrace her grief. The tragedy only underscores Jeans need to leave an island that holds no promise of a future. Her harrowing journey to freedom across a battered landscape takes Jean through a terrain of memories: of her childhood, with a detached mother at odds with an adoring father, of her complex bond with Lana, and of the friends and lovers who have shaped and shared her days. Epic in scope, The True History of Paradise poignantly portrays the complexities of family and racial identity in a troubled Eden.