This is Austin Clarke’s collection of his best short stories This is his finest work from more than forty years of storytelling, drawing on his Caribbean roots as well as his years living in Canada and the United States. From dust jacket.

As a Canadian writer born and raised in Barbados, Austin Clarke has been able to explore the difficult lives of Caribbean immigrants in Toronto from a unique perspective. Clarke is well-known for his many powerful short stories which deal with the adaptation of black people into white Canada.  His ninth novel, The Polished Hoe, won the Giller Prize for fiction in 2002, and the Regional Commonwealth Prize for best book in 2003. Clarke has published numerous collections of short stories including Choosing his Coffin: the best stories of Austin Clark (2003). In 1999 he was awarded the W.O. Mitchell Prize for producing an outstanding body of work and the Rogers Communication Writers Trust Prize (1998). Athabasca University description.