Summary
In internationally acclaimed author M.G. Vassanji’s second novel, we meet Nurdin Lalani and his family, Asian immigrants from Africa, who have come to the Toronto suburb of Don Mills only to find that the old world and its values pursue them. A genial orderly at a downtown hospital, he has been accused of sexually assaulting a girl. Although he is innocent, traditional propriety prompts him to question the purity of his own thoughts. Ultimately, his friendship with the enlightened Sushila offers him an alluring freedom from a past that haunts him, a marriage that has become routine, and from the trials of coping with teenage children. Introducing us to a cast of vividly drawn characters within this immigrant community, Vassanji is a keen observer of lives caught between one world and another.
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780771087226 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0771087225 |
| Author: | M.G. Vassanji |
| Publisher: | McClelland & Stewart Inc. |
| Imprint: | McClelland & Stewart Inc. |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 224 |
| Release Date: | 15 September 2013 |
| Weight: | 198g |
| Dimensions: | 18mm x 132mm x 201mm |
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Critics Review
“A novel of considerable charm and intelligence, informed by a delightful sense of irony.”
—Mordecai Richler
“Vassanji probes beneath the surface to create a compelling and poignant portrait of human displacement.”
—Ottawa Citizen
“It is part of Vassanji’ s great talent to demonstrate that the minor changes—unexpected love, sex, accusations—in the life of a very modest man are, in fact, transformations of history.”
—Globe and Mail
“Vassanji, in charting a tiny part of the Canadian reality, offers up certain truths, thought-provoking, disturbing, but ultimately, and in a small way, hopeful.”
—Saturday Night
“No New Land, like Nino Ricci’s Lives of the Saints and Sky Lee’s Disappearing Moon Café, redefines and extends our sense of the possibilities, not of multicultural literature in Canada, but of Canadian writing tout court.”
—Books in Canada
“A poignant story of the immigrant experience… . Vassanji has provided an absorbing snapshot of our often vulnerable neighbors.”
—Montreal Gazette
“[Vassanji] writes in an inviting, straightforward style laced with humour.”
—Vancouver Sun
“No New Land creates a rich portrait of a transplanted community.”
—Calgary Herald
“No New Land, with quiet humor and wisdom, gives deep insight into the strains and promises of immigration.”
—World Literature Today
M.G. Vassanji
M.G. VASSANJI won the Giller Prize forThe Book of SecretsandThe In-Between World of Vikram Lall, and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction forA Place Within: Rediscovering India. His novelThe Assassin’s Songwas shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction. Most recently, his novelNostalgiawas a finalist in Canada Reads 2017.
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