Category: Canadian 5 out of 5s

Karen Connelly’s — The lizard cage *****

Karen Connelly’s — The lizard cage *****

Teza is a political prisoner jailed in solitary confinement in a Burmese prison. He endures his punishment with patience, an ability to focus on any tiny distraction within his cell, and the limited contact with the prison authorities.

I am at a loss as to how this entire novel took place in a jail cell, but still had me captivated by every sentence.

Nancy Huston’s — The mark of an angel *****

Nancy Huston’s — The mark of an angel *****

Saffie is a German living in Paris in the 1950s who works for a musician, Raphael. Raphael falls desperately in love with Saffie while she appears strangely aloof. They have a child together, but when Saffie meets Marias, their lives fall apart and Saffie’s haunted past comes to light.

This is Huston at her best. While I read this novel more than a decade ago, it’s tale has always remained embedded in my memory — a sure sign of an exceptional story.

Mark Sakamoto’s — Forgiveness

Mark Sakamoto’s — Forgiveness

Forgiveness is a memoir to two Canadian families — the Sakamotos from Vancouver and the MacLeans from the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St Lawrence. When war breaks out, Ralph MacLean enlists, and not long after he arrives in Hong Kong he is captured, and spends most of the war in a prison camp. Meanwhile, the British Columbian government is eager to remove the prosperous Japanese community from Powell Street and expels them from their homes into the B.C. interior as farm labour. A generation later, these two families come together when their children marry.

This is an emotional journey, beautifully written that I didn’t want to end.

Anita Rau Badami’s — The hero’s walk *****

Anita Rau Badami’s — The hero’s walk *****

What happens when you lose the most precious person in your life — a daughter? This is the agonizing dilemma Sripathi, living in India, finds himself in when he learns of his daughter and husband’s death in Canada. Soon their daughter, Nandana arrives and Sripathi has to come to terms with his loss.

Tell it to the trees is equally as good, but Hero’s Walk is Badami’s champion for pulling at the heart strings.