Mawenzi House: 55 books

Riveting stories from the heart of the Vancouver Sikh experience. Set among people who emigrated in the late twentieth century, facing racial animosity and economic insecurity, and moving forward as their lives became more settled, Fauji Banta Singh gives us rare glimpses into the private...

This volume examines, from diverse perspectives, what it means to be a Muslim in Canada. Is it a public or a private identity, and as an identity is it compatible with a secular democracy such as Canada? What relation does it bear to historical, cultural, and ethnic identities? Is a total agnostic...

A coming-of-age novel set in a Montreal in which immigrant youth totter on the edge of self-destruction and oblivion, in the face of brutal and racist police, an insensitive education system, and few prospects for the future. Thomas’s language is spare, and his crackling dialogue and use of patois...

These poems explore the meaning of home and belonging and a search for transcendence through love and art. They reflect on what it means to live between cultures and continents, question traditional female roles, ponder over the role of art in life. The poet’s search for home leads her to different...

In this, his sixth book of poetry, Persaud, born in Guyana, continues his exploration of form, and improvisations on styles, rhythm/taal, mood and scope, as he looks to questions of identity and history.

These essays by accomplished literary critics begin an examination of some of the most exciting new writing to emerge in Canada in the last four decades, following the postcolonial wave of immigration of the 1960s and 70s. Employing a variety of approaches and bringing together multiple concerns—ranging...

The landscape of 1970s South Africa lives and breathes in these stories. This debut collection is populated by a wide and surprising range of unforgettable characters: an artist who finds his power in the dusty earth; a mother who waits for a letter; a collector of cacti who seeks her own kind of freedom; a shopkeeper in trouble in an outpost country town . . .

It is 2007, and Iraq is roiling under the American occupation. Fractured by warring political factions, threatened by Islamic fundamentalism, preyed on by American industrialists, it is a place where the cry of a dying child often goes unheard. Against this backdrop, the Americans prepare to host...

Passionate, committed, and deeply humane, these poems bear witness with unflinching honesty to the horrific violence of the Sri Lankan civil war.

What does a teenage girl do when she sees her beloved older brother commit a horrific crime? Should she report to her parents, or should she keep quiet? Should she confront him? All her life, Naledi has been in awe of Basi, her charming and outgoing older brother. They've shared their childhood, with...

Aya Katerina, a neighbourhood in Ottoman Smyrna at the end of World War I. Through the eyes of Niko "the Orphan"—his Armenian father was taken away by the soldiers—we see this close world going about its traditional ways. But dark clouds loom in the near distance. We meet Elena, Niko’s aunt...

The past sits uneasily on the characters of these stories, whether on their native Isabella Island or in Montreal, where some of them now live. Life is ultimately lived according to the choices that were made, and retribution does not always go where it belongs. Thus, Robertson, taking action against...

Introduction by M G Vassanji In the late nineteenth century white settlers and administrators arrive to occupy the African country of Zimbabwe (Rhodesia). Nehanda, a village girl, is recognized through omens and portents as a saviour. The resulting uprising by the Africans is brutally crushed...

Introduction by M G Vassanji “Caught between memory and dreaming, the hopeful exile weaves a comforting performance out of a tale of agony.’’ The place is white-ruled Rhodesia of the seventies (now Zimbabwe), the exile the African in his or her own land. Young men and women flee...