Shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award
Cyril Rowntree migrates to Toronto from Jamaica in 2012. Managing a precarious balance of work and university he begins to navigate his way through the implications of being racialized in his challenging new land.
Longlisted for the Toronto Book Awards
Longlisted for Canada Reads 2023
A Globe and Mail Best BookA chance encounter with a panhandler named Patricia leads Cyril to a suitcase full of photographs and letters dating back to the early 1920s. Cyril is drawn into the letters and their story of a white mother’s struggle with the need to give up her mixed race baby, Edward. Abandoned by his own white father as a small child, Cyril’s keen intuition triggers a strong connection and he begins to look for the rest of Edward’s story.
As he searches, Cyril unearths fragments of Edward’s itinerant life as he crisscrossed the country. Along the way, he discovers hidden pieces of Canada’s Black history and gains the confidence to take on his new world.
- ISBN10 1770866264
- ISBN13 9781770866263
- Publish Date 15 June 2022
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country CA
- Imprint Cormorant Books,Canada
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 352
- Language English