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Product Description
Review
“In Barnacle Love, a set of interlinked stories, Anthony Da Sa moves with skill and ingenuity between folk tale, myth and narratives of contemporary displacement. The tone is spare and elegiac; the stories are filled with carefully chosen details and sharply drawn characters. They have immense emotional and truthful power.”
–Colm Tóibín
"Barnacle Love is a beautiful debut, haunting and elegiac, capturing lives at once as grittily real and as mythic as the sea that forms them."
—Nino Ricci, author of Testament
"Anthony De Sa's dramatic immigrant history is revealed in this series of linked stories often operatic in their tragic proportions and folk-tale in structure. With emotional power, incidents veer daringly in mood from brutal to tender. Anthony De Sa writes of the unbreakable connections between the old and new worlds with a revelatory passion. I have no hesitation in saying his is an astonishing talent."
—Wayson Choy, author of All That Matters
"This collection of linked short stories speaks poignantly about the wrenchingly opposing forces that can tear a family apart." –Edmonton Journal
"A moving and engaging read, its memorable images and heart's woes sometimes visceral in their power." –The Globe and Mail
"A book of exceptional balance. Tender and raw, morbid and surprisingly gentle. [It] will stay with readers long after the closing pages." –The Vancouver Sun
"Poignant....Irresistible." –Toronto Star
From the Hardcover edition.
–Colm Tóibín
"Barnacle Love is a beautiful debut, haunting and elegiac, capturing lives at once as grittily real and as mythic as the sea that forms them."
—Nino Ricci, author of Testament
"Anthony De Sa's dramatic immigrant history is revealed in this series of linked stories often operatic in their tragic proportions and folk-tale in structure. With emotional power, incidents veer daringly in mood from brutal to tender. Anthony De Sa writes of the unbreakable connections between the old and new worlds with a revelatory passion. I have no hesitation in saying his is an astonishing talent."
—Wayson Choy, author of All That Matters
"This collection of linked short stories speaks poignantly about the wrenchingly opposing forces that can tear a family apart." –Edmonton Journal
"A moving and engaging read, its memorable images and heart's woes sometimes visceral in their power." –The Globe and Mail
"A book of exceptional balance. Tender and raw, morbid and surprisingly gentle. [It] will stay with readers long after the closing pages." –The Vancouver Sun
"Poignant....Irresistible." –Toronto Star
From the Hardcover edition.
Product Description
Shortlisted for the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize
Like Wayson Choy and David Bezmozgis before him, Anthony De Sa captures, in stories brimming with life, the innocent dreams and bitter disappointments of the immigrant experience.
At the heart of this collection of intimately linked stories is the relationship between a father and his son. A young fisherman washes up nearly dead on the shores of Newfoundland. It is Manuel Rebelo who has tried to escape the suffocating smallness of his Portuguese village and the crushing weight of his mother’s expectations to build a future for himself in a terra nova. Manuel struggles to shed the traditions of a village frozen in time and to silence the brutal voice of Maria Theresa da Conceicao Rebelo, but embracing the promise of his adopted land is not as simple as he had hoped.
Manuel’s son, Antonio, is born into Toronto’s little Portugal, a world of colourful houses and labyrinthine back alleys. In the Rebelo home the Church looms large, men and women inhabit sharply divided space, pigs are slaughtered in the garage, and a family lives in the shadow cast by a father’s failures. Most days Antonio and his friends take to their bikes, pushing the boundaries of their neighbourhood street by street, but when they finally break through to the city beyond they confront dangers of a new sort.
With fantastic detail, larger-than-life characters and passionate empathy, Anthony De Sa invites readers into the lives of the Rebelos and finds there both the promise and the disappointment inherent in the choices made by the father and the expectations placed on the son.
From the Hardcover edition.
Like Wayson Choy and David Bezmozgis before him, Anthony De Sa captures, in stories brimming with life, the innocent dreams and bitter disappointments of the immigrant experience.
At the heart of this collection of intimately linked stories is the relationship between a father and his son. A young fisherman washes up nearly dead on the shores of Newfoundland. It is Manuel Rebelo who has tried to escape the suffocating smallness of his Portuguese village and the crushing weight of his mother’s expectations to build a future for himself in a terra nova. Manuel struggles to shed the traditions of a village frozen in time and to silence the brutal voice of Maria Theresa da Conceicao Rebelo, but embracing the promise of his adopted land is not as simple as he had hoped.
Manuel’s son, Antonio, is born into Toronto’s little Portugal, a world of colourful houses and labyrinthine back alleys. In the Rebelo home the Church looms large, men and women inhabit sharply divided space, pigs are slaughtered in the garage, and a family lives in the shadow cast by a father’s failures. Most days Antonio and his friends take to their bikes, pushing the boundaries of their neighbourhood street by street, but when they finally break through to the city beyond they confront dangers of a new sort.
With fantastic detail, larger-than-life characters and passionate empathy, Anthony De Sa invites readers into the lives of the Rebelos and finds there both the promise and the disappointment inherent in the choices made by the father and the expectations placed on the son.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful and Haunting Story of an Portuguese Immigrant Family,
By
This review is from: Barnacle Love (Hardcover)
Manuel was sent off to fish for his Portuguese village, as all other men and boys do. But he wanted more for his life, and wanted to get away from this life forever. This is the story about him and his family's immigrant experience in Canada.
This is said to be a book of linked stories, however, I read it as a novel. I loved the breath taking descriptions of both Portugal and Canada. Anthony De Sa paints a beautiful, at times haunting portrait of the immigrant experience. With sumptuous prose, he tells of the ups and downs of the Rebelo family. The only thing that I found difficult, is when the narrator changes from father to son, it took me a little while to figure out that the son took over. That said, I recommend this beautiful small book. In this case, good things do come in small packages!
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Account of Portuguese Struggles,
By
This review is from: Barnacle Love (Hardcover)
I could not put this book down. I am a first generation Canadian in Toronto and this book hit home for me. This book tells of the struggles of a Portuguese man and his family in the New World. The story that was told regarding passage to Canada was interesting and gave me some perspective on my parents' sacrifices to come to this country. Also there were stories and details regarding growing up in the 70's that I had forgotten and could relate too. I look forward to reading more from this author. An excellent read!!!
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
There is so much more to CanLit than this...,
By
This review is from: Barnacle Love (Paperback)
I read this novel because it was a Giller prize finalist. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have.
This book follows the ups and downs of a Portuguese family as they make their way from Portugal to Canada, making a new life for themselves. It follows several generations of a family and author De Sa does a good job, I think, of conveying those struggles. On that account, the book is a success. Where the book falls down is that the story is, in my opinion, dull. There is little to hold the reader's interest, unless you take pleasure in reading about people's lives. But if you are after an exciting page turner, then this book is definitely not for you.
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