Six Metres of Pavement
Farzana Doctor, Dundurn (Midpoint, dist.), $22.99 (384p) ISBN 978-1-55488-767-5
Ismail Boxwala, an ultimately good man haunted by a horrible mistake, provides the focal point of Doctor's moving second novel in which she examines with crystalline clarity the plight of this gentle, middle-aged Indian immigrant living in Toronto. Twenty years ago, Boxwala accidentally left his baby locked in his car, resulting in her death. The tragedy destroys his marriage and induces a long struggle with drink; still, Ismail keeps his job and home and eventually finds himself drawn to Celia Sousa, a 50-year-old Portuguese widow, left penniless by her gambling-addict husband, and currently living with her daughter on Ismail's street. Doctor (Stealing Nazreen) charts the growing heat between Ismail and Celia and weaves in a sweet secondary story about Ismail's fatherly friendship with Fatima Kahn, a bisexual Indian college student. Doctor also folds the past into the present throughout, allowing the dead to haunt the living and providing both a realistic portrayal of suffering and a paean to second chances. (Mar.)
Details
Reviewed on: 01/10/2011
Genre: Fiction
Open Ebook - 340 pages - 978-1-55488-829-0
Open Ebook - 384 pages - 978-1-4597-0375-9
Paperback - 378 pages - 978-81-291-1982-7