Passages: Welcome Home to Canada

by Michael Ignatieff (Introduction)

Foreword by Michael Ignatieff
Preface by Rudyard Griffiths, The Dominion Institute

Without departure, there is no arrival -- this is the experience of some of Canada's best-known émigré authors and public figures, shared in Welcome Home to Canada .

In first-hand accounts, these celebrated writers explore the excitement and anguish of uprooting to a new country. Childhood memories, familiar streets, the aromas of local cooking, long-cherished plans -- to leave all this behind can only be traumatic. And yet, to find a haven from oppression and danger, a place to carve out a new identity and put down new roots -- this is a thrill only an emigrant can know. In Passages we see this terrible pain and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for growth in delicate balance.

Alberto Manguel discovers the quiet pleasure of citizenship after years of cosmopolitan wandering. Ken Wiwa looks for a fresh start, far from the shadow of his martyred father in Africa. Nino Ricci, having grown up in an old-world Italian community transplanted to rural Ontario, describes his passage into the larger world, where other families don’t bake their own bread or slaughter their own pigs. Shyam Selvadurai tells of his flight from the intolerance of his native Sri Lanka, where, as a Tamil and a homosexual, he found himself unwelcome. Moses Znaimer describes his parents’ hair-raising escape first from Hitler and then Stalin, a series of adventures through Eastern Europe and Central Asia and finally across the Atlantic.

Introduced by Michael Ignatieff, Passages explores what it means to be a foreigner, what it means to be a writer and what it means to be a Canadian -- and what it means to be all three at once.

Contributors : Michelle Berry • Ying Chen • Brian D. Johnson • Dany Laferriere • Alberto Manguel • Anna Porter • Nino Ricci • Shyam Selvadurai • M. G. Vassanji • Ken Wiwa • Moses Znaimer

Genres: Biography Memoir, Canada, History, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Michael Grant Ignatieff is a Canadian author, academic and former politician. He was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011. Known for his work as a historian, Ignatieff has held senior academic posts at the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Harvard University and the University of Toronto.

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Worthy reflections on new Canadian citizenship for foreign born writers blessed with this reality. What a delight.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite liked this collection of personal stories by immigrant Canadian authors. It's a shame that Michael Ignatieff is listed as the author. His introduction was the least moving part of the book. If you are a teacher, be sure to check out the related web content listed on the Acknowledgements page.

[Vivaval · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Well-written and diverse perspectives on the experience of being an immigrant.

[Kathleen McRae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Passages is a compilation of stories from various Canadians who share their emigration experience and their feelings about leaving their known world to come to a new land.