Vivid, lyrical, harshly real and at times quite moving, Tropic Death presents a collection of short sketches from the Caribbean and Central America. The book was first published in 1926, at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, to high acclaim. The stories chart the days of men working stone quarries or building the Panama Canal, of women tending gardens and rearing needy children. Early on addressing issues of skin color and class, Walrond imbued his stories with a remarkable compassion for lives controlled by the whims of nature and oppressed by the effects of colonialism.