Finding Edward
Published on 15. June 2022
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-1-77086-626-3 (ISBN)
Description
Shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award
Longlisted for the Toronto Book Award
Longlisted for Canada Reads 2023
A Globe and Mail Best Book
Cyril Rowntree migrates to Toronto from Jamaica in 2012. Managing a precarious balance of work and university he begins to navigate his way through the implications of being racialized in his challenging new land.
A chance encounter with a panhandler named Patricia leads Cyril to a suitcase full of photographs and letters dating back to the early 1920s. Cyril is drawn into the letters and their story of a white mother's struggle with the need to give up her mixed race baby, Edward. Abandoned by his own white father as a small child, Cyril's keen intuition triggers a strong connection and he begins to look for the rest of Edward's story.
As he searches, Cyril unearths fragments of Edward's itinerant life as he crisscrossed the country. Along the way, he discovers hidden pieces of Canada's Black history and gains the confidence to take on his new world.
Longlisted for the Toronto Book Award
Longlisted for Canada Reads 2023
A Globe and Mail Best Book
Cyril Rowntree migrates to Toronto from Jamaica in 2012. Managing a precarious balance of work and university he begins to navigate his way through the implications of being racialized in his challenging new land.
A chance encounter with a panhandler named Patricia leads Cyril to a suitcase full of photographs and letters dating back to the early 1920s. Cyril is drawn into the letters and their story of a white mother's struggle with the need to give up her mixed race baby, Edward. Abandoned by his own white father as a small child, Cyril's keen intuition triggers a strong connection and he begins to look for the rest of Edward's story.
As he searches, Cyril unearths fragments of Edward's itinerant life as he crisscrossed the country. Along the way, he discovers hidden pieces of Canada's Black history and gains the confidence to take on his new world.
Reviews / Votes
"Murray's rich narrative offers mystery, but it also spans decades of Canadian history, differentiating Finding Edward from the typical immigrant story. The prospect of better understanding Edward's life in Canada offers Cyril an escape from his own excruciating isolation. Murray triumphs in capturing the undeniable and unmistakable ache of severe loneliness." -- Whitney French * Quill & Quire * "Powerful" * Open Book * "Sheila Murray's debut novel Finding Edward is a significant literary work that gives a voice to the voiceless and infuses the present with a previously unrecorded past, bridging much of the black experience in twentieth century Canada, from Africville to the lumber camps of British Columbia." -- Mason Haigh * Rebel Women Lit * "... Finding Edward offers readers a clear-sighted and deeply felt novel, which reminds us there are more ways of knowing what happened in the past than just knowing what happened. This is a powerful debut that considers the history and the present of Black people through a truly vibrant set of characters." -- Veronique Darwin * Literary Review of Canada * "A tremendous debut novel that captivates you from the first sentence to the last. A beautiful tale told with deep humanity, so raw and real, it could only be written from the soul. Sheila Murray's prose is exquisite, and her gift for storytelling is a delight and a treasure." * The Globe and Mail * "Finding Edward is ... both a serious look at societal stagnation and change as well as a tender tale of what it means to be biracial in Canada in two different eras and provinces, which makes this redemptive, intimate, and special novel well worth reading." -- Victoria Gibson-Billings * The Dalhousie Review * "Sheila Murray writes lush descriptions and dialogue with the density and harmony of a symphony. ... Finding Edward is both an engagingly executed and compelling fictional tale and an important historical document." -- Gloria Blizzard * World Literature Today *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Canada
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
With flaps
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 137 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
404 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-77086-626-3 (9781770866263)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Sheila Murray's short fiction has been published in many literary journals including Descant, The Dalhousie Review, and The New Quarterly. Finding Edward is her first novel. Murray is an advocate for social justice and currently leads a grassroots, volunteer-driven initiative that engages urban residents in adapting to local climate change impacts. She was born and raised in St. Albans, England, and now lives in Hamilton, Ontario.