Where The Sun Shines Best
Three Canadian soldiers awaiting deployment to Afghanistan beat a homeless man to death on the steps of their armoury after a night of heavy drinking. The poet, whose downtown Toronto home overlooks the armoury and surrounding park, describes the crime, its perpetrators, the victim, and a cast of homeless witnesses that includes the woman, a prostitute, who first alerts police. The subsequent trial evokes reflection on the immigrant experience the poet shares with one of the accused, and on the agony of that young soldier’s mother. From Kandahar to Bridgetown to Mississauga, Ontario, Where the Sun Shines Best encompasses a tragedy of epic scope, a lyrical meditation on poverty, racism and war, and a powerful indictment of the ravages of imperialism.
Austin Clarke is a novelist, short story writer and poet born in Barbados.
Other publications from this author include:
- In Your Crib (2015)
- They Never Told Me: and Other Stories (2013)
- More (2009)
- Choosing His Coffin: The Best Stories of Austin Clarke (2003)
- The Polished Hoe (2002)
- The Question (1999)
- The Origin of Waves (1997)
- The Austin Clarke Reader (1996)
- Canadian Experience (1994)
- There Are No Elders (1993)
- In This City (1992)
- Proud Empires (1988)
- Nine Men Who Laughed (1986)
- When Women Rule (1985)
- Prime Minister (1977)
- The Bigger Light (1975)
- Storm of Fortune (1973)
- When He Was Free and Young and He Used to Wear Silks (1971)
- The Meeting Point (1967)
- Amongst Thistles and Thorns (1965)
- The Survivors of the Crossing (1964)