They Never Told Me

Overview

In this collection, award-winning author Austin Clarke has caught, in his characters, a sweet longing for youth and an anxiety-stricken rage at old age; an immigrant’s longing for a placid, lost home and his lust for a new high-speed motorcar life; and an intellectual’s sense of empowerment by black history even as he watches what little he knows about such history engulf him. These are intense and private lives made public by the force of their individual voices, voices that may be rambunctious and fractious but that are, nonetheless, elegant in their intent and humor and their acceptance that is never acquiescence. The volume also includes a prose portrait of Austin Clarke by acclaimed author Barry Callaghan.

Reviews

“Uncommonly talented, Clarke sees deeply, and transmits his visions and perceptions so skillfully that reading him is an adventure.”  —Publisher’s Weekly

“Clarke has a matchless ear for dialogue. . . . He succeeds in making his pages brilliant.”  —Boston Globe

“He has forcefully demonstrated that distance can sharpen a writer’s focus and deepen perceptions.”  —Globe and Mail

“Clarke the novelist is very much in charge. He never falls into the trap of making his characters vehicles for mouthing this or that political ideology. They are no more or less than the human beings that his literary alchemy brings to life.”  —Toronto Star

Author Biography

Austin Clarke is the author of numerous novels, short story collections, and works of nonfiction, including the novels More, which won the Toronto Books Award, and The Polished Hoe, which won the Giller, Commonwealth, and Trillium prizes. He is a member of the Order of Canada. He lives in Toronto.