Here for the first time in a single volume is Edward Brathwaite's Caribbean trilogy - Rights of Passage, Masks, and Islands - a brilliant exploration of the predicament of the contemporary New World Negro. Through the tension of jazz/folk rhythm, through historical flashbacks, and excursions to Europe, New York and Africa, the poet interweaves the past and present of his Caribbean homeland - its natural beauty, its violent history, the values that sustain its people - into a vigorous and distinctive poetic statement.