by Caryl Phillips (1993)
From the acclaimed author of Cambridge comes an ambitious, formally inventive, and intensely moving evocation of the scattered offspring of Africa. It begins in a year of failing crops and desperate foolishness, which forces a father to sell his three children into slavery. Employing a brilliant range of voices and narrative techniques, Caryl Phillips folows these exiles across the river that separates continents and centuries. Phillips's characters include a freed slave who journeys to Liberia as a missionary in the 1830s; a pioneer woman seeking refuge from the white man's justice on the Colorado frontier; and an African-American G.I. who falls in love with a white Englishwoman during World War II. Together these voices make up a "many-tongued chorus" of common memory—and one of the most stunning works of fiction ever to address the lives of black people severed from their homeland.
Carol Shields
This is the poignant story of Daisy Goodwill, twentieth-century pilgrim, from her calamitous birth in Canada to her death in a Florida nursing home nearly ninety years later. Struggling to find her place in the world, she listens and observes, becoming a witness to her own life and death in this rich tale that reflects and illuminates our own unsettled era. ~from the back cover
Michael Ignatieff
Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff is an acclaimed literary masterpiece celebrating major critical honors and timeless storytelling.
Paul Beatty
Tuff is a celebrated work by Paul Beatty (Booker Prize Winner), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.
Doris Lessing
The story of a non-marrying man and other stories is a celebrated work by Doris Lessing (Nobel Laureate), recognized for masterclass storytelling and lasting literary resonance.