“Thirteen intriguing short stories form the collection revealing Sandiford’s keen ability to unearth fascinating peculiarities in his characters and what may be seen as ordinary lives.” — Groove, March 2006 “Many of the thirteen stories deal primarily with relationships, especially between men and women. Sometimes romantic, sometimes entirely sexual, the relationships read as heartbreakingly real…. It is Sandiford’s ability to slip the reader seamlessly into the psyche of each character that is really a strength.” — Barbados Advocate, April 2006 “Written with a spare, masculine grace, the stories in The Tree of Youth focus closely on relationships, particularly sexual relationships, that suggest both the texture of lived experience in the Caribbean and the way this is transcended by the universal nature of human desire. In these very readable tales, Sandiford reminds us of that heady mix of pleasure and panic that we often experience as we perform (with spouse or partner or lover) the intricate dance of our own mortality.” — Mark McWatt, author of Suspended Sentences: Fictions of Atonement “With his power of words and imagination, Robert Edison Sandiford has produced yet another collection of exciting, wonderfully written short stories. The Tree of Youth is a must read.” — Carl James, author of Race in Play: Understanding the Socio-cultural Worlds of Student Athletes