For the characters in Soraya Palmer’s debut novel, The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter & Other Essential Ghosts, storytelling is a way to come to terms with reality, a way of communicating, of saying what cannot be said and of finding comfort. This is the story of the coming-of-age of Sasha and Zora, two Trinidadian-Jamaican sisters who live in Brooklyn and watch their family break apart repeatedly and ultimately journey into acceptance of themselves and each other. Drinking from the Ashanti folktales, which are passed down through Caribbean parents, the book is an ode to the stories that shape us and the stories we become.