Stay connected with other York alumni through our new virtual book club.
In this online community, alumni can enjoy books related to lifelong learning, social issues, literature, psychology, and other user-submitted ideas. There is no cost to participate – you just have to get a copy of the book to enjoy.
How it works: Book club members will connect through a private online forum where they can discuss the current book and network with each other. The group will spend two months on each book, so you'll have plenty of time to read. You can sign up and learn more at: www.pbc.guru/yorku
Why should you join? As a member, you will have an opportunity to both connect with fellow alumni and be part of a lifelong learning community!
Currently reading
A History of Burning by Janika Oza (August - October 2024)
Four generations. Three sisters. One impossible choice. A profoundly moving debut novel spanning India, Uganda, England, and Canada, about how one act of survival reverberates across generations of a family and their search for a place of their own.
India, 1898. Pirbhai is the thirteen-year-old breadwinner for his family when he steps into a dhow on the promise of work, only to be taken across the ocean to labour on the East African Railway for the British. With no money or voice but a strong will to survive, he makes an impossible choice that will haunt him for the rest of his days and reverberate across generations.
Pirbhai’s children go on to thrive in Uganda during the waning days of British colonial rule. As the country moves towards independence and military dictatorship, Pirbhai’s granddaughters—sisters Latika, Mayuri, and Kiya—come of age in a divided nation, each forging her own path for the future. Latika is an aspiring journalist with a fierce determination to fight for what she believes in. Mayuri’s ambitions will take her farther away from her family than she ever imagined. And fearless Kiya will have to bear the weight of their secrets.
Forced to flee Uganda during Idi Amin’s brutal expulsion of South Asians in 1972, the family must start their lives over again in Toronto. Then one day news arrives that makes each generation question how far they are willing to go, and who they are willing to defy, to secure a place of their own in the world.
A masterful and breathtakingly intimate saga of colonialism and exile, complicity and resistance, A History of Burning is a radiant debut about the stories our families choose to share—and those that remain unspoken.
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