2016 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature — Longlisted2016 RBC Taylor Prize — LonglistedThe unforgettable memoir of Giller Prize–winning author and poet Austin Clarke, called “Canada’s first multicultural writer.”Austin Clarke is a distinguished and celebrated novelist and short-story writer. His works often centre around the immigrant experience, of which he writes with humour and compassion, happiness and sorrow. In ’Membe...

Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada • Commonwealth Writers Prize, Caribbean and CanadaWhen Mary-Mathilda, one of the most respected women of the island of Bimshire (also known as Barbados) calls the police to confess to a crime, the result is a shattering all-night vigil that brings together elements of the island's African past and the tragic legacy of colonialism in one epic sweep.Set in the West Indies in the period following World War II, The Polished H...

Gathered together are three extraordinary books by renowned storyteller and memoirist Austin Clarke.’Membering, Clarke’s breathtaking memoir, spans over fifty years of his life as a writer, chronicling his coming to Canada in the fifties, formative experiences with Malcolm X, Chinua Achebe, and LeRoi Jones, and bursting with cultural insights and poignant memories from a narrative master.In The Polished Hoe, winner of the Giller Prize and the 2003 Commonwe...

A compelling collection that explores the lives of Afro-Caribbean immigrants living in Canada, these eight short stories delve into the experiences of displaced persons living in contemporary society—all with a richness of language and rhythm that is authentically urban.

Poignantly capturing the sorrow and torment of the dispossessed, this collection of stories focuses on the contemporary experiences of urban dwellers longing for a place to call home. Private lives and intimate pains are made public, and the rawness of the moment is redeemed by the elegance of Clarke's prose and the innate sympathy of his eye.

In this collection, award-winning author Austin Clarke has caught, in his characters, a sweet longing for youth and an anxiety-stricken rage at old age; an immigrant's longing for a placid, lost home and his lust for a new high-speed motorcar life; and an intellectual's sense of empowerment by black history even as he watches what little he knows about such history engulf him. These are intense and private lives made public by the force of their individual voices, voices that may be rambun...

This is the second book in Austin Clarke’s groundbreaking Toronto Trilogy about the lives of black people in Canada. In Storm of Fortune, Clarke brings us into a circle of West Indian domestics—their friends, lovers, spouses, and employers—living in Toronto in the late 1950s. In lush, invigorating prose, Clarke illuminates the world of Bernice Leach—a world inhabited by earthy, garrulous, but terribly isolated people, all living, working, and struggling within an alien, white, Can...

This is Austin Clarke's acclaimed trilogy about a group of West Indian domestics, their friends, lovers, spouses, and employers living in Toronto. In rich, exuberant language, Clarke illuminates a world inhabited by earthy, garrulous, but terribly isolated people, all living, working and struggling with the alien, White, Canadian culture. Dominated by warm, superbly drawn characters and capped by vibrant, unerring dialogue, The Toronto Trilogy is a devastating and brilliant commentary on t...

From Austin Clarke, the critically acclaimed author of The Polished Hoe—winner of the Giller Prize—comes More, a powerful new novel of survival in a cold and alienating world. Certain to become a classic in contemporary world literature, More carries readers into the lonely life of an immigrant domestic—abandoned years before by a faithless husband, her life devastated by her son’s involvement in gang culture and crime—and her remarkable journey from tragedy back...

This is the first book in Austin Clarke’s acclaimed trilogy about a group of West Indian domestics, their friends, lovers, spouses and employers living in Toronto. In rich, exuberant language, the novel illuminates the world of Bernice Leach, a Barbadian woman, working in the infamous ‘Canadian Domestic Scheme’ as a live-in maid. Oddly situated in the employ of the Burrmanns, a wealthy Jewish-Canadian couple, Bernice becomes privy to some household secrets which serve both she and her frie...

Two black men: the poet, an elder and veteran of last century's civil rights movement; and a nameless youth, swaggering and beltless, seduced by guns-and-gangs and expensive cars, and perpetually targeted by police. They are brothers by the colour of their skin, neighbours in the same "crib," yet separated by a lifetime of experience. Invoking memories of his personal encounters with leaders like Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael and Amiri Baraka, the poet berates his heir for dropping the tor...

2016 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature (Longlisted)2016 RBC Taylor Prize (Longlisted)The unforgettable memoir of Giller Prize–winning author and poet Austin Clarke, called “Canada’s first multicultural writer.”Austin Clarke is a distinguished and celebrated novelist and short-story writer. His works often centre around the immigrant experience, of which he writes with humour and compassion, happiness and sorr...