I received this book as a Netgalley ARC, but I am a long time fan of George Elliott Clarke and I’ve read his entire repertoire.

George Elliott Clarke is a multitalented writer who has won accolades in a variety of genres. He is a poet, a playwright, a librettist, an essayist, a novelist and a historian. History and memory can be said to be central to all his writing. Here, in a stirring memoir that relates unflinchingly but unsentimentally the meanings of growing up Black in Nova Scotia—Africadian—Clarke makes the reader feel, as much as it is possible for someone who does not share his culture and upbringing, how race matters in a society that likes to believe in its own high-mindedness about being colour blind. Clarke can make you laugh and cry in the span of one page. His writing, as might be expected for a renowned poet, is lyrical. Highly recommended!