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To whom do we offer refuge - and why? After a life that rubbed up against the century's great events in New York City, Mexico, and Montreal, 96-year-old Cassandra MacCallum is surviving well enough, alone on her island, when a young Burmese woman contacts her, claiming to be kin. Curiosity, loneliness, and a slender filament of hope prompts the old woman to accept a visit. But Nang's story of torture and flight provokes memories in Cass that peel back, layer by layer, the events that brought her to this moment - and forces her, against her will, to confront the tragedy she has refused for half a century. Could her son really be Nang's grandfather? What does she owe this girl, who claims to be stateless because of her MacCallum blood? Drawn, despite herself, into Nang's search for refuge, Cass struggles to accept the past and find a way into whatever future remains to her.
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Reviews
"A silk scarf of a novel, which catches on far-flung places and deep heartaches, and gathers them into an old woman's gnarled and feisty memory. Merilyn Simonds shows how mysterious we remain to ourselves and to each other after even a century of living."
Elizabeth Hay, author of Giller Prize–winning Late Nights on Air
"Do you believe what you see with your eyes or what you see with your heart? That question, raised by Simonds' layered and nuanced account of an extraordinary life, will provoke thought in skeptics and believers alike."
Kirkus Reviews
"This novel patiently accrues richness and layered resonance in the manner of a long life - in fact, like the almost century-long life of its stubborn, vital heroine. It also explores in personal and intimate terms the most important issues of our time: the nature of borders and belonging, and the plight of the refugee."
Steven Heighton, author of the Governor General's Award–winning The Waking Comes Late