The Only Snow in Havana - Softcover

Elizabeth, Hay

3.33

30 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0920953808 ISBN 13: 9780920953808

Publisher: Cormorant Books, 1996

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Co-Winner of the 1993 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction

In one of the earliest works by the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner, Elizabeth Hay collects a series of reflections on life, identity, history, and love, drifting through her many homes ― Yellowknife, Mexico City, Toronto, and New York City ― to consider Canadian identity. Hay reflects on the idea of being Canadian ― what it means, who we are, how do we act, how do we live ― and compares it to the world around her in stunning detail, drawing the disparate locations together by their connection to the history of the early Canadian fur trade and our hearty adoration of snow. She writes of the heart of a country, the history of a people that live on the brink of identity. Blending memoir, biography, and history in a provocative intensity, Hay’s style and talent shines through in this early work, proving her well on the road to her long and lustrous career.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Elizabeth Hay was born in Owen Sound, Ontario. Hay has worked as a CBC broadcaster, in Yellowknife, Winnipeg and Toronto, and as an author, writing in Mexico, New York, and Ottawa. She is the 2002 recipient of the Marian Engel Award, recognizing her illustrious body of work, has twice been nominated for the Governor General's Award and is the winner of the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novel Late Nights on Air.

Review:

In one of the earliest published works by the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner, Elizabeth Hay, in her graceful, poetic style, collects a series of reflections on life, identity, history, and love, drifting through her many homes -- Yellowknife, Mexico City, Toronto, and New York City -- to consider the identity of Canadians and how we live in the wider world. With every place she lives, Hay questions the idea of being Canadian that it means, who we are, how do we act, how do we live and compares it to the world around her in stunning detail, drawing the disparate locations together by their connection to the history of the early Canadian fur trade and our hearty adoration of snow. Using her own life and experiences of working in radio, raising a daughter, and finding her place in the world, Hay informs and expands the history she explores by including her own. She writes of the heart of a country, the history of a people that live on the brink of identity, The smallest slip and we enter an entirely different world. Blending memoir, biography, and history in a provocative intensity, Hay's style and talent shines through in this early work, proving her well on the road to her long, and lustrous career. The Only Snow in Havana is an accomplished work, an early, compelling document of one of Canada's finest writers.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.