“. . . a hard story, sometimes despairingly bleak, but it is also undeniably beautiful . . . worth reading—and rereading . . .”
—Quill & Quire

FICTION

ISBN: 9780920661956

Price: $16.95

"her eloquent and appealing ghazals dazzle one with their precision, sudden turns and brilliant use of the cultural memory of language and imagery."
- Kuldip Gill
 

“…an important milestone in the evolution of Canadian literary studies” —Arun Mukherjee, York University

“Beautiful and gripping stories written with a seasoned maturity.”
—Austin Clarke

“Persaud’s breathtaking narrative demonstrates its strong affinity with the work of Austin Clark. Here, almost inscrutable demotic slang, once penetrated, reinforces Persaud’s social commentary and nimbly pits self-ironizing postmodernism against the timeless values of narrative.”
—The Globe and Mail

There is no morality left but that of the tiger: brute force. It is 1948. The Afrikaaner Nationalists are poised to introduce the racist policy of apartheid into South Africa. Their plans include the conversion of District Six in Cape Town into an exclusively white residential district, and the removal of its current residents. As profiteers and politicians converge upon this slum area, its threatened residents valiantly put up a fight. Henry Naidoo is drawn into the fight. Naidoo, a highly principled yet gentle Indian lawyer, realizes that the struggle against apartheid is no ordinary fight for justice. It calls for a brutality he is not equipped with.

In the first part of this collection the love that is celebrated emerges from a deep sense of historical reconnection with the poet’s African ancestors who were taken captive and sent to the Caribbean. But the focus is not on the brutality of their enslavement, though that is the guiding principle that informs the poetic voice. The poems perform a retrospective search for the roots that his African ancestors planted in the new world without romanticizing their struggles, defeats, and victories. Thus they recreate the continental African as a seeker of a poetic understanding of the African Diaspora in the Caribbean.

In the second part, Kuwabong takes the reader through a Prufrockian maze of relationships complicated by expectations and disappointments. The city of Hamilton, Ontario especially provides the social and physical landscapes that initiate the personae’s responses to love made tricky by the extreme challenges of the mundane. Though the poems silently scream with pain and disappointment, these moods are calmed by epiphanies of extreme tenderness that bind the relationships.

". . . these poems are rhythmical, full of life, meant to be read aloud."
—Rabble.ca

“Arnold Itwaru invites us to re-examine our literary-critical proprieties and join him in a quest to create a discourse that will open up these avenues of inquiry. Canadian literature deserves to be taken this seriously.” —Books in Canada

“Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha's words leap off the page–urgent, sumptuous writing that demands, and deserves, a wide audience. I'm listening.”
— Anna Camilleri, author of I Am a Red Dress,
editor Red Light and Brazen Femmes

Dancing in the Dust is a moving story of growing up in a fearful, oppressive society, where the only comfort for the young is dream and romance, and the only free option that of rebellion.

“. . . cinematic in clarity . . . Molope makes her reader see and understand
. . . feel the enormity of apartheid’s atrocity.”
—The Globe and Mail

POETRY

This tale of romance between unlikely lovers explores the divides between science and religion, East and West, male and female, ancient and modern, and the extent to which perception defines reality.

“Superb... the 21 stories are both exotic and accessible.”
—The Globe and Mail 

Downfall by Degrees takes the reader on a journey that explores the nature of alienation and exile. The drawing rooms of Lahore's high society, the ghettos of Britain, an estate in the Pakistani countryside, the bedroom of a beautiful woman—these are the settings for these stories of love and identity, longing and becoming, exile and return—stories that probe with masterful precision and exquisite balance the condition of the modern man at odds against himself. 

In a central park in Ottawa's Sandy Hill, Gabe, an immigrant from Guyana (South America), explores the past in the company of his young Canadian-born daughter. But this novel goes beyond the traditional innocence to reality plot, as it also embraces a quest for spiritual beingness in a compelling setting fraught with irony. Grounds shift as characters come fully to life; tropical and temperate zones merge; the past and present form intermittent shadows. Gabe's story of growing up in an Indian family struggling to live traditionally in faraway Guyana, and Christian, Hindu and Muslim worlds come together, as the plot unravels, and we continually move back and forth faced with new realities, new awakenings.

". . . a beautifully rendered, intellectually challenging, and deeply satisfying addition to Dabydeen’s oeuvre."
— Dr Anne-Marie Lee-Loy, Ryerson University

—World Literature Today

"Warriar has created here a life story so engrossing and touching, so rich in evocative detail, and so telling in its condemnation of Quebec’s solipsism that she again deserves our commendation."
— Montreal Review of Books

 “...skilled, crafted, layered, full of contrasts” —Books in Canada

 “A gifted Canadian poet.” —Toronto Star

 “Dabydeen's poetry has Stravinsky rhythms.”  —The Ottawa Citizen

— Multicultural Review

"Basdeo Mangru is a careful and thorough scholar who has studied the sources in great detail, including records which have scarcely been examined by earlier writers on the Indian diaspora . . . A sound contribution to West Indian and Imperial history."

—Donald Wood, University of Sussex
 

". . . will make a lasting impact on Indo-Caribbean scholarship. He is meticulous, original, and above all committed to his subject."

—David Dabydeen
 

". . . Erudite, lucid scholarship. Mangru's meticulous research produces long-awaited and convincing evidence of the struggles of the Indians for their rightful place in the Caribbean."

—Frank Birbalsingh, York University 

This book includes both the English translation and the original Yiddish text.

"A spectacular example of Yiddish resilience." — Jewish Book World

"This book is a valuable contribution to Canadian critical theory. Itwaru's rigorous analysis of the ideological subtexts of the novels of post World War II immigrant writers upsets the proprieties of Canadian criticism, which has consistently avoided commenting on thematizations of racism, exploitation, hegemony, and unequal distribution of power."

—Arun Mukherjee 

“Selvon writes with great charm” —The New York Times

"His evocative descriptions . . . his humourous affectionate portrayal of character and his subtle use of folklore . . . are evidence of a master yarn-spinner." —The Globe and Mail

Ismith Khan, Elahi Baksh, Jan Shinebourne, Sharlow Mohammed, Madeline Coopsammy, Narmala Shewcharan, Harishchandra Khemraj, Sasenarine Persaud, Cyril Dabydeen, Rooplall Monar, Marina Budhos, Christine Singh, Shani Mootoo, Rabindranath Maharaj, Rajnie Ramlakhan, Raywat Deonandan

". . . covers a range of prose styles, while thoroughly exploring issues and preoccupations relevant to the Indo-Caribbean experience."

—Caribbean Beat Magazine

“The atmosphere and insight displayed in this book make it a considerable achievement.’’  —The Irish Times

more

Praise for H Nigel Thomas’ Behind the Face of Winter:

". . . may be the starkest, most distressingly honest, thus unforgettable, account of the Caribbean-Canadian experience yet written . . . a brave and eloquent voice. —Montreal Gazette
 

“. . . a unique voice modulated by both the Old World and New World experience.” —Earl Lovelace

“This is a classic work of literature and should find a welcome space on the shelf beside Lamming and Naipaul.’’ —The Trinidad Guardian

“. . . The first major anthology of Sri Lankan Tamil writing translated in English – Lutesong and Lament is a rich, vibrant collection of contemporary writing . . .” —The Toronto Star

". . . provides a breath of life into contemporary understanding of the inner dimension of Islam." —Montreal Gazette

“...a beautiful example of women's epistemology in action that, without unduly essentialising men and women, acknowledges and accepts women's ways of knowing, through narrative, experience and intuition.”
—The Muslim World Book Review

Includes both the English and Mandarin texts

“Those who think they know Sutherland's taste as a reviewer may wish to look more closely at these poems, which have something of the best of the jazzy, itinerant Beat in the earlier work and a surprisingly deft, if understated, cultural commentary in the latest.” —The Globe and Mail

The essays and articles in this volume comprise a concerted and many-sided look at the literature of this group. Several of them are also informative surveys of the important branches of this literature. Altogether they provide the contexts for appreciating it, and understanding it as an esthetic, social, and cultural phenomenon. At the same time they address several fundamental issues, regarding the relationship of this literature both to traditional (South Asian and Third World) and to mainstream (Canada and North America) languages, literatures, and themes. They probe the past, appraise the present, and throw a glance at the future.

Includes both the English and Mandarin texts

In these essays some of Canada’s leading literary critics examine how recent Canadian literature addresses notions of multiplicity, and how ideas of space and landscape complement and intersect with the constantly changing facets of Canadian society. The collection considers the works of a large number of diverse writers, while dealing specifically with genres such as Asian, African, and Native Canadian writing.

The contributors are respected scholars of Canadian literature at major universities.