What We All Long For - A Novel

Dionne Brand

Summary

Gripping at times, heartrending at others, What We All Long For is an ode to a generation of longing and identity, and to the rhythms and pulses of a city and its burgeoning, questioning youth. Dionne Brand's multicultural infusion follows the stories of a close circle of twenty-something second-generations living in downtown Toronto—and the secrets they hide from their families.Tuyen is a lesbian avant-garde artist and the daughter of Vietnamese parents who've never recovered from losing one of their children while in the rush to flee Vietnam in the 1970s. She rejects her immigrant family's hard-won lifestyle, and instead lives in a rundown apartment with friends—each of whom is grappling with their own familial complexities and heartache. Tuyen is love with her best friend Carla, a biracial bicycle courier. Oku is a jazz-loving poet who, unbeknowst to his Jamaican-born parents, has dropped out of college. He is tormented by his unrequited love for Jackie, a gorgeous black woman who runs a hiphop clothing store.Meanwhile, Tuyen's lost brother, Quy—now a criminal in the Thai underworld—sets out for Toronto to find his long-lost family. Gripping at times, heart-wrenching at others, Dionne Brand's What We All Long For is a story of identity, love and loss—the universal experience of being human, and discovering the nature of our longing.

Available since: 03/26/2024.

Print length: 337 pages.

Other books that might interest you

What Happened in the Woods

Phil M. Williams

High school senior Brandi Hunt lives for the moment, without rules or immediate consequences. After her meth-addicted mother is arrested, she's sent to live with her father, Jack, who she hasn't seen since she was a child. 
 
 
 
He's a veteran suffering from paranoia and PTSD. Despite his demons, he's determined to set his daughter on the straight and narrow, albeit with unconventional methods that include extreme training sessions on survivalism, self-defense, marksmanship, and even guerilla warfare. 
 
 
 
But when Jack's boot camp has a serious casualty, Brandi is finished with her crazy father . . . 
 
 
 
Several years later, Brandi is approached with a modeling opportunity. 
 
 
 
Red flags wave when the handsome photographer drives her to a remote cabin for the modeling shoot. However, Brandi is blinded by her infatuation, even when he crosses the line of professionalism. 
 
 
 
But they aren't alone. When the photographer vanishes, she's left naked and alone. The perfect prey to be snagged by the stranger watching from the woods. 
 
 
 
Brandi cannot imagine the hell that is planned for her. It's a rigged game that only ends one way. Will she survive or die? And either way, can she take a few of them with her first?

Show book

Death at the Abbey

Jan Durham

After the death of her husband, Liz McLuckie has taken early retirement and moved to Whitby, a picturesque fishing town on the North Yorkshire coast. She thinks the renovation of two ramshackle fishing cottages will take her mind off things, but she soon discovers Whitby isn’t quite the peaceful retreat she imagined. When she discovers the body of a local Professor near the medieval Abbey, Liz reluctantly finds herself at the center of a murder investigation. The post mortem reveals death by drowning. So how did he get onto the clifftop? And why did he have a fish in his pocket? Liz follows the trail of the murderer, and many red herrings—both literal and metaphorical—in the company of her friends, including an almost-reformed burglar, a disgraced archaeology student, and Nelson the bull terrier, the ugliest (and bravest!) dog in Yorkshire.

Show book

Broken Homes

Ben Aaronovitch

Ben Aaronovitch's bestselling Rivers of London urban fantasy series 
A mutilated body in Crawley. A killer on the loose. The prime suspect is one Robert Weil, possibly an associate of the twisted wizard known as the Faceless Man. Or maybe just a garden-variety serial killer. Before apprentice wizard and Police Constable Peter Grant can even get his head 'round the case, two more are dropped in his lap: a town planner has gone under a tube train, and there's a stolen grimoire for Grant to track down. So far, so London. But then Peter gets word of something very odd happening on a housing estate designed by a nutter, built by charlatans, and inhabited by the truly desperate.Is there a connection?And if there is, why oh why did it have to be South of the River—in the jurisdiction of some pretty prickly local river spirits?

Show book

Sherlock Holmes and the Curse of...

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, William...

Baron Collingwood’s eldest son and heir to the title dies from a mysterious illness. Shortly thereafter, his brother, the second in line, also falls ill. His condition takes a dramatic turn for the worse, leaving doctors and police stumped. The Baron thus turns to Holmes and Watson for help.

Show book

Old World Charm - A Witches...

Cate Martin

When nothing and no one holds you to the present, why not celebrate the new year 91 years ago? 
So think Amanda Clarke and the rest of the Witches Three. They head back in time to ring in 1928, drinking bootleg champagne with the wealthiest members of St. Paul society, honest businessmen and gangsters and those who dwell where those categories overlap. 
But when a surprise wedding engagement announcement becomes an even more surprising murder of the bride-to-be, the Witches Three find themselves wrapped up in yet another mystery. 
Because even if it’s not your time era, when the chief suspect is your close friend, you don’t opt out. Or so says Amanda Clarke. 
“Old World Charm”, Book 4 in the Witches Three Cozy Mystery series. This mélange of magic and murder mystery is sure to charm you.

Show book

Bodies from the Library 5:...

Tony Medawar

Classic crime fiction's 'Indiana Jones' Tony Medawar unearths more unpublished and uncollected stories from the Golden Age of suspense.
‘Five books in, and the selection here might well be the strongest yet. This series continues to delight with the high standard of forgotten gems that Medawar uncovers, and there’s sufficient range to ensure that all fans of the genre will find something to enjoy. Book 6 can’t come soon enough.’
Jim Noy, author of The Red Death Murders
The end of the First World War saw the rise of an insatiable public appetite for clever and thrilling mystery fiction and a new kind of hero – the modern crime writer. As the genre soared in popularity, so did the inventiveness of its best authors, ushering in a “Golden Age” of detective fiction – two decades of exemplary mystery writing: the era of the whodunit, the impossible crime and the locked-room mystery, with stories that have thrilled and baffled generations of readers.
The Golden Age still casts a long shadow, with many of the authors who were published at that time still hugely popular today. Aside from novels, they all wrote short fiction – stories, serials and plays – and although many have been republished in books over the last 100 years, Bodies from the Library collects the ones that are impossible to find: stories that appeared in a newspaper, magazine or an anthology that has long been out of print; ephemeral works such as plays not aired, staged or screened for decades; and unpublished stories that were absorbed into an author’s archive when they died . . .
Complete with fascinating biographies by Tony Medawar of all the featured authors, this latest volume in the annual Bodies from the Library series once again brings into the daylight the forgotten, the lost and the unknown, and is an indispensable collection for any bookshelf.
The historical thrillers in this collection are top-notch, showcasing the traditional storytelling techniques that made the Golden Age of detective fiction so beloved. Each story is a journey back in time, a thrilling ride filled with suspense and intrigue.
For fans of Carter Dickson (The White Priory Murders), E.C.R. Lorac (Death of an Author), John Dickson Carr (The Black Spectacles), Christianna Brand (Suddenly at His Residence), and Tony Medawar (Ghosts from the Library).
HarperCollins 2022

Show book