Coming unmoored: Old and new ways of belonging in Caryl Phillipss in the Falling Snow

Caryl Phillipss In the Falling Snow traces the diverging experiences of three related men-a grandfather, father and mixed-race grandson of Afro-Caribbean background-and examines how, over the decades following the arrival of the Windrush, their lives are affected by changes in British society. While the novel focuses most prominently on the figure of the father, the three-generational spectrum allows Phillips to explore how matters of belonging, identity and race impinge differently upon each of the three male individuals. This article discusses the representation of the varying life journeys resulting from these diverse subject positions and is especially interested in tracing and critically interrogating how the introduction of mixed-race characters in the novel might challenge and complicate the issues of belonging and racial identifications to suggest new, possibly "post-racial" ways of belonging.