'This book, and my first book, Soucouyant, took years to write. I wanted to capture this narrative, one of resilience, creativity, tenderness and love.' These stories are often overlooked and ignored. I grew up hearing these stories - about people I love and respect, who were profoundly creative and hardworking and simply had dreams of living a good life. 'There was, at that time, a lot of anxiety about visible minorities moving into the area and changing the landscape.

It's set in a time period that is very different from today's world. But I still wanted to capture what Scarborough was really like for a child in the early 1990s, particularly a child with a black mother and a South Asian father growing up at that particular time. 'I'm a fiction writer and this is clearly the work of the imagination. In his own words, Chariandy talks about how Brothercame to be. The 2019 debates are happening March 25-28, 2019 and will be hosted by Ali Hassan. Get to know the Canada Reads 2019 contenders The story is rooted in Chariandy's own experience growing up as a person of colour in early 1990s Toronto.īrother will be defended by Lisa Ray on Canada Reads 2019. David Chariandy's novel Brother takes us inside the lives of two brothers, the mixed-heritage sons of Trinidadian immigrants. Their father has disappeared and their mother works double, sometimes triple, shifts so her boys might fulfil the elusive promise of their adopted home in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough.

Book brother by david chariandy