Behind the Face of Winter

Fiction. African American Studies. Pedro Moore leaves the nurturing yet destitute home of his grandmother on Isabella Island to join his mother Isis, who works as a domestic in Montreal. Pedro brings with him the memories of his island, the teachings of his beloved grandmother, and a desire to know the secret identity of his father. BEHIND THE FACE OF WINTER is a coming-of-age novel that takes place in a Montreal in which immigrant youth totter on the edge of self-destruction and oblivion. Thomas’s language is spare, and his crackling dialogue and use of patois compares with the best in Caribbean literature. This is a brilliantly evocative novel sure to leave its mark on the reader. [a] satisfying novel … [with] an impressive sense of place-Times Literary Supplement.