Overview

Full Product Details

9781571311993

Table of Contents

Reviews

A young boy experiments with self-expression after a death in the family catapults him into isolation and instability. --Essence, Books We Can't Wait to Curl Up With This Fall A rich memoir about how far some folks have to travel just to arrive where they began . . . Exalted and melodic . . . We see vast and granular marvels through the eyes of a child still capable of awe. --Minneapolis Star Tribune This coming-of-age memoir follows Downing from his childhood with his grandmother and brother in Trinidad, to the boys' eventual move to rural Ontario, to Downing's invention of his rocker persona. --Bustle, Most Anticipated Books of September 2021 Deeply moving . . . Suffused with poetic prose that jumps off the page, this inspiring account sings. --Publishers Weekly, Starred Review Compelling . . . Saga Boy is an eloquent memoir about Antonio Michael Downing's experiences as an immigrant in a minority population; it centers his resilience. --Foreword Reviews, Starred Review Downing's lush language and sensory details make the fascinating events of this memoir pop. An authentic, entertaining, and timely account of a creative immigrant's experiences. --Booklist Downing's elegant, engaging memoir will have particular significance to readers from the Caribbean diaspora, but it will be understood by any reader who has ever had their world suddenly upended and needed to make it whole again. --Library Journal Combining staccato prose and singsong storytelling . . . Downing's heart-wrenching memoir chronicles his saga of trying on and casting off many masks, learning the dimensions of the face through which he sees the world and the world sees him. --BookPage An engaging narrative about the search for home, belonging, and identity . . . Intriguing, passionate, and often moving. --Kirkus Reviews Singularly dazzling, Saga Boy is a brilliant collage of the twenty-first century's most incredible memoirs. Told with an unforgettable and innovative pace, this a book I will reread forever. --Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy A vibrant, evocative, and searing account of the lives of Black immigrants. Downing helps us understand the rage and resilience of Black boys--motherless, fatherless, itinerant--and the communities that intervene to raise them. The triumph of Saga Boy is the triumph of Blackness everywhere--the irrepressible instinct for survival in a world where Blacks are prey. --Ian Williams, Giller Prize-winning author of Reproduction An emotionally captivating, heartbreaking read on one man's journey to understand who he is, where he comes from and where he belongs. From being the only Black family in Wabigoon to moving transformatively through the music scene in the city, Saga Boy makes us all question the strength of the ties that bind and where our future lies. --Tanya Talaga, author of Seven Fallen Feathers and All Our Relations Downing transports readers to the steamy, scented jungle of Trinidad where he lived with his grandmother as a child. Miss Excelly stands with ramrod dignity, glories in the Lord's love, and jumps off the page with her strength, her joy, and her suffering. As Faulkner created the powerful Dilsey in The Sound and the Fury, Downing has created Miss Excelly. A story of resilience and character, Saga Boy is bound to become a Canadian classic. --Catherine Gildiner, author of Good Morning, Monster and Too Close to the Falls In Saga Boy, Downing offers expertise and experience, intellect and intimacy; this is a book that names the griefs and violences of colonialism and insists on the tentacular ways they reach into all facets of being. It is also a book about kinship, pleasure, celebration, and love. Saga Boy is the story of a remarkable life, one both relatable and not, told with intricacy. It charts the ways space and time shape people into many, discernible persons within a lifetime. Truly unforgettable. --Jenny Heijun Wills, author of Older Sister, Not Necessarily Related Downing seamlessly blends poetic images, music, and storytelling to create a poignant and stunningly honest memoir of a young man's adamant determination to navigate his position and find himself despite the boundaries of colonialism, racism, and the endless sense of disbelonging. --Lamees al Ethari, author of Waiting for the Rain: An Iraqi Memoir and From the Wounded Banks of the Tigris

"Praise for Saga BoyAn Essence Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2021 A Bustle Most Anticipated Book of September 2021 A Book Marks Best Reviewed Memoir of September 2021""A young boy experiments with self-expression after a death in the family catapults him into isolation and instability.""--Essence, ""Books We Can't Wait to Curl Up With This Fall""""This coming-of-age memoir follows Downing from his childhood with his grandmother and brother in Trinidad, to the boys' eventual move to rural Ontario, to Downing's invention of his rocker persona.""--Bustle, ""Most Anticipated Books of September 2021""""A rich memoir about how far some folks have to travel just to arrive where they began . . . Exalted and melodic . . . We see vast and granular marvels through the eyes of a child still capable of awe.""--Minneapolis Star Tribune""Combining staccato prose and singsong storytelling . . . Downing's heart-wrenching memoir chronicles his saga of trying on and casting off many masks, learning the dimensions of the face through which he sees the world and the world sees him.""--BookPage""Deeply moving . . . Suffused with poetic prose that jumps off the page, this inspiring account sings."" --Publishers Weekly, Starred Review""Compelling . . . Saga Boy is an eloquent memoir about Antonio Michael Downing's experiences as an immigrant in a minority population; it centers his resilience.""--Foreword Reviews, starred review""An engaging narrative about the search for home, belonging, and identity . . . Intriguing, passionate, and often moving.""--Kirkus Reviews""Downing's lush language and sensory details make the fascinating events of this memoir pop. An authentic, entertaining, and timely account of a creative immigrant's experiences.""--Booklist""Singularly dazzling, Saga Boy is a brilliant collage of the twenty-first century's most incredible memoirs. Told with an unforgettable and innovative pace, this a book I will reread forever.""--Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy""A vibrant, evocative, and searing account of the lives of Black immigrants. Downing helps us understand the rage and resilience of Black boys--motherless, fatherless, itinerant--and the communities that intervene to raise them. The triumph of Saga Boy is the triumph of Blackness everywhere--the irrepressible instinct for survival in a world where Blacks are prey.""--Ian Williams, Giller Prize-winning author of Reproduction ""An emotionally captivating, heartbreaking read on one man's journey to understand who he is, where he comes from and where he belongs. From being the only Black family in Wabigoon to moving transformatively through the music scene in the city, Saga Boy makes us all question the strength of the ties that bind and where our future lies.""--Tanya Talaga, author of Seven Fallen Feathers and All Our Relations ""Downing transports readers to the steamy, scented jungle of Trinidad where he lived with his grandmother as a child. Miss Excelly stands with ramrod dignity, glories in the Lord's love, and jumps off the page with her strength, her joy, and her suffering. As Faulkner created the powerful Dilsey in The Sound and the Fury, Downing has created Miss Excelly. A story of resilience and character, Saga Boy is bound to become a Canadian classic.""--Catherine Gildiner, author of Good Morning, Monster and Too Close to the Falls ""In Saga Boy, Downing offers expertise and experience, intellect and intimacy; this is a book that names the griefs and violences of colonialism and insists on the tentacular ways they reach into all facets of being. It is also a book about kinship, pleasure, celebration, and love. Saga Boy is the story of a remarkable life, one both relatable and not, told with intricacy. It charts the ways space and time shape people into many, discernible persons within a lifetime. Truly unforgettable.""--Jenny Heijun Wills, author of Older Sister, Not Necessarily Related ""Downing seamlessly blends poetic images, music, and storytelling to create a poignant and stunningly honest memoir of a young man's adamant determination to navigate his position and find himself despite the boundaries of colonialism, racism, and the endless sense of disbelonging.""--Lamees al Ethari, author of Waiting for the Rain: An Iraqi Memoir and From the Wounded Banks of the TigrisPraise for Antonio Michael Downing ""Downing deploys spectacular details in describing [his] childhood years, the sights, sounds and violence of that place and time. The prose in those early passages is exalted and melodic. Even as the tremendous care in its crafting seems evident, the words also flow naturally. Downing never seems to press. We see vast and granular marvels through the eyes of a child still capable of awe.""--Star Tribune""Downing chronicles his life from his childhood in Trinidad through his teen and adult years in Canada, a life marked by abandonment, rape, alcoholism, and drug use that still manages to end on an optimistic note. [His story] will be familiar to many, yet Downing's lyrical prose and his eye for rich details will pull readers into his narrative and keep them captive until its hopeful end.""--The Los Angeles Review"

Author Information

Antonio Michael Downing is an author, speaker, and musical artist. His memoir Saga Boy was called ""singularly dazzling"" by Kiese Laymon and ""the triumph of Blackness everywhere"" by Scotiabank Giller Prize-winner Ian Williams. He has been shortlisted for several awards including the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writer Award, the 2021 Toronto Book Award, and the 2021 Speaker's Book Award. He is also the author of the children's picture book Stars in My Crown and his debut novel, Black Cherokee. He writes and performs music as John Orpheus. Raised in Trinidad, Toronto, and Brooklyn, Antonio Michael Downing now lives in Kitchener, Ontario.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available