In Another Place, Not Here - Hardcover

This is poet, essayist, and film-maker Dionne Brand's first novel. The same sensuous language and imagery that informs her other work is present in this story of two contemporary Caribbean women. Elizete and Verlia appear to be opposites. Elizete is a poor islander who dreams of escaping to a life of freedom and prosperity in a city. Verlia is a jaded Canadian who leaves Toronto to return to her island homeland where she hopes to find revolution and authenticity. Each woman sees her fantasy in the other, comparing their urban and rural lifestyles, material wealth and poverty, and different spiritualities. While this book is certainly about the differences between the two women's lives, it is also very much about the power of our fantasies and how we project onto people the things we want to see. Brand's supple, poetic prose is well-suited for her many-textured subject. --Rebecca Brown

"A fierce, sensuous novel of women in migration, political and emotional. Concrete and visionary as a dream, relentless as the history it reveals, In Another Place, Not Here is a work of great beauty and moral imagination." -Adrienne Rich

"With this book, this marvellous love letter, Brand emerges as a writer of the first rank--. She combines folklore with poetry in a manner that recalls Michael Ondaatje, and she writes reportage like Mavis Gallant. This book is one of the classics of our culture."- Halifax Chronicle-Herald

"--One of the best Canadian [novels] that I have read in the last ten years. [It] touches the centre of Canadian experience, dealing with our racism, embracing the possibility of confrontation and of cure." -Austin Clarke, The Toronto Star

"This is simply a stunning book." -The Globe and Mail