“10 Books, 10 Voices” - Book Review: The Girl With The Hazel Eyes.
Some books find you when your spirit is ripe for them. The Girl With The Hazel Eyes by Callie Browning is one such gift — a quietly powerful novel that wrapped itself around
my heart like an heirloom shawl. I didn’t just read Susan and Lia’s story — I felt chosen to witness it.
What stayed with me long after the last page was the strength and wisdom of Susan, and how Cordelia (Lia) was like a mirror of Susan. Their connection in the book is worth
reading for! Callie Browning writes with the grace of a storyteller who isn’t just skilled but spiritually attuned. Her words feel like time travel — carrying you from Lia’s story in
2015 into the heat and hush of 1960s Barbados, where girlhood, silence, resistance, and love all leave their marks.
I saw myself in Lia — her passion for writing, her quest to uncover truth, her hunger to live freely and love deeply. There’s a passage in the final chapter that made me pause
and press my palm to my heart: “I don’t want to live my life as a reclusive author with so many regrets when I die. I want to live fully, breathe freely and love deeply.” That line is
a compass.
This novel filled me with emotion. I felt what Susan felt as she navigated love and loss, and joy at the quiet triumph of legacy. It’s a story stitched together like a quilt — vibrant, textured, at times
surprising. The kind of book you return to at different points in life, always finding new wisdom between the folds.
For any Caribbean woman and Island Girl wondering if her story matters, this book is a roadmap and a permission slip. Read it. Treasure it. I know I will.
Reviewed by Ayana McCalman
Ayana McCalman is a Caribbean Attorney-at-Law who has practiced law for the past 20 years. She is also an aspiring writer and novice artist born in Guyana and now living her
island girl life in Nevis. With a deep love for words and stories that heal, Ayana treasures Caribbean literature for its power to reflect and reclaim our inner landscapes.
She believes books don’t just tell stories — they find us when we’re ready to be seen and heard.