When Mary-Mathilda, one of the most respected women of the island of Bimshire (also known as Barbados) calls the police to confess to a crime, the result is a shattering all-night vigil that brings together elements of the island's African past and the tragic legacy of colonialism in one epic sweep.

Set in the West Indies in the period following World War II, "The Polished Hoe" -- an "Essence" bestseller and a "Washington Post Book World" Most Worthy Book of 2003 -- unravels over the course of twenty-four hours but spans the collective experience of a society characterized by slavery.

2016 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature — Longlisted 2016 RBC Taylor Prize — Longlisted The unforgettable memoir of Giller Prize–winning author and poet Austin Clarke, called “Canada’s first multicultural writer.� Austin Clarke is a distinguished and celebrated novelist and short-story writer. His works often centre around the immigrant experience, of which he writes with humour and compassion, happiness and sorrow. In ’Membering, Clarke shares his own experiences growing up in Barbados and moving to Toronto to attend university in 1955 before becoming a journalist. With vivid realism he describes Harlem of the ’60s, meeting and interviewing Malcolm X and writers Chinua Achebe and LeRoi Jones. Clarke went on to become a pioneering instructor of Afro-American Literature at Yale University and inspired a new generation of Afro-American writers. Clarke has been called Canada’s first multicultural writer. Here he eschews a traditional chronological order of events and takes the reader on a lyrical tour of his extraordinary life, interspersed with thought-provoking meditations on politics and race. Telling things as he ’members them.

Growing up in Barbados, Austin Clarke was surrounded by women in the kitchen. Enveloped in the heavenly smells and smoke of their cooking, he listened to their talk about the food they were preparing. His mother; several aunts and numerous cousins always recited the steps they were taking as they cooked, and through them, he learned how to cook the traditional dishes of Barbados - food that has its origins in the days of slavery, of hardships and economic grief, when 'ingreasements' (ingredients) were scarce. The food was not just intended to 'full a hole in your stomach', according to Austin's mother, but to make you 'feel good', 'grow into a strong man' and give you 'big-big brains'. In Pig Tails 'n' Breadfruit, Austin Clarke shares his favourite recipes, including Smoked Ham Hocks with Lima Beans, Breadfruit Cou-Cou with Braising beef, Oxtails with Mushrooms, Pepperpot, and his renowned Chicken Austintacious. He reveals his method for choosing a 'nice piece o' pigtail from the brine barrel', demonstrates how to test an okra for freshness, outlines the essential characteristics of a real pork chop, and instructs us in the proper use of a cou-cou stick, that essential tool found in every Barbadian home. And all the while he reminisces about the food he ate as a boy and the rituals that went along with it. Whether it's a story about the village butcher whose qualifications were somewhat suspect, how to map a sure-fire route to a woman's heart through her stomach, or searching the streets of Durham, North Carolina, for fried chicken with Norman Mailer, Austin Clarke will make you hungry for 'hot cuisine' and the spirit of the island.

At the news of her son BJ's involvement in gang crime, IdoraMorrison, a maid at the local university, collapses in her basementapartment. For four days and nights she retreats into a vortex ofmemory, pain, and disappointment that becomes a riveting expose of her life as a Caribbean immigrant living abroad. Abandoned by her deadbeat husband, Bertram, and left alone to raise her son, Idora has done her best to survive against immense odds. But now that BJ has disappeared into a life of crime, she recoils from his loss and is unable to get out of bed, burdened by feelings of invisibility. Slowly, however, Idora summons the strength to investigate her son's troubles--and her own weaknesses--as she finds her way back into the light with a couragethat is both remarkable and unforgettable.

Now available after over four decades, the first collection of short fiction from bestselling author and Barbadian-born Canadian luminary Austin Clarke - winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and the Trillium Book Award for his novel The Polished Hoe - is a vital, lyrical, and provocative exploration of the Black immigrant experience in Canada. Originally issued in 1971, Austin Clarke's first published collection of eleven remarkable stories showcases his groundbreaking approach to chronicling the Caribbean diaspora experience in Canada. Characters move through the mire of working life, of establishing a home for themselves, of reconciling with what and who they left behind - all the while contending with a place in which their bone-chilling reception is both social and atmospheric. In lyrical, often racy, and wholly unforgettable prose, Clarke portrays a set of provocative, scintillating portraits of the psychological realities faced by people of colour in a society so often lauded for its geniality and openness.

"The West Indians' primitive vitality and humanity in "Storm of Fortune" is rendered in ... some of the most delightful dialogue to see print in many a long year." -"Library Journal
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