Reproduction bookcover

Reproduction

A Novel
4.9/5.0
21,000+ Reviews
Bookshop.org has the highest-rated customer service of any bookstore in the world

Description

“With subtlety and wit, [a] prizewinning debut” novel set in 1970s Toronto “explores a liaison across race and class divisions in Canada” (The Guardian, UK).

Felicia and Edgar come from different worlds. She’s a nineteen-year-old student and Caribbean immigrant while he is the impetuous heir to his German family’s fortune. When their ailing mothers are assigned the same Toronto hospital room, their chance encounter leads to an unlikely relationship full miscommunications, misunderstandings, and very surprising results.

Years later, Felicia’s son Armistice—“Army” for short—is a teenager fixated on get-rich-quick schemes, each one more absurd than the next. The. Edgar finally re-enters Felicia’s life, at yet another inopportune moment, putting this “witty, playful and disarmingly offbeat” saga on the path to its heartfelt conclusion (The Toronto Star, CA).

Winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize

Product Details

PublisherEuropa Editions
Publish DateApril 21, 2020
Pages466
LanguageEnglish
TypeBook iconDigital (delivered electronically)
EAN/UPC9781609455767

About the Author

Poet, short story writer, and novelist Ian Williams was named one of “ten Canadian writers to watch out for” by CBC in 2018. His poetry has been shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Robert Kroetsch Poetry Book Award. He won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award for his short stories. Williams holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Toronto and is currently an assistant professor of poetry in the Creative Writing program at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Reproduction, his debut novel, was a finalist for the Amazon first novel prize, was a CBC Spring & Black History Month pick, and dubbed one of the “Buzziest Books of 2019” by Chatelaine Magazine.

Reviews

“One of the most energetic, lively, funny, and sad novels of the year.”—Quill & Quire, Book of the Year

“William’s imaginative, intricate tapestries are dazzling.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Williams’s unsparing view on the past’s repetition is heartrending. This ambitious experiment yields worthwhile results.”—Publishers Weekly

“Witty, playful, and disarmingly offbeat—even as it hums with serious themes.”—The Toronto Star

“Williams creatively and masterfully intersperses poetry, dialog, humor, pregnant asides, music lyrics, and descriptive passages to reveal what is going on inside the characters’ heads and outside in the world around them.”—Library Journal (Starred Review)

“Polyphonic and big-hearted.”—Electric Literature

“A witty, formally thrilling family saga.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A family saga like no other, with vivid characters and spectacular narrative twists . . . What makes it all work is Williams’s exquisite writing and his willingness to take risk with form. This is a fresh and exciting literary voice.”—NOW Toronto, Book of the Year

“Williams brings the characters’ struggles and flaws to life with compassion and intelligence, and the novel deftly explores themes of inheritance, race, money, sex, and love.”—BookRiot

“Both funny and poignant, powerful and playful.”—The Calgary Herald

Reproduction is an inventive and tender portrait of family life in all its forms.”—Rabble

Reproduction’s genius is its weaponized empathy, the precision-etched intensity of Williams’ gritty, witty, wholly unsentimental exploration of the collision of human hearts and the messy aftermath.”—Eden Robinson, author of Monkey Beach and Son of a Trickster

“Reminiscent of Miriam Toews’s novel All My Puny Sorrows in its balance between grief and humour.”—Quill & Quire

“Williams’s compassion for his characters transforms them from ordinary beings into uncommon souls. We know these people: their flaws, their foibles and their fuck ups. We recognize them because we share the same vagaries of living, wherever we are born.”—Aminatta Forna, author of The Memory of Love

“The startling brilliance of Ian Williams stems from his restlessness with form. His ceaseless creativity in sussing out the right patterning of story, the right vernacular nuance, the right diagram and deftly dropped reference—all in service of vividly illuminating the intermingled comedy and trauma of family.”—David Chariandy, author of Brother

Reproduction is a brilliant modernist symphony, a truly unique blend of character, voice, sound, and style that shows the many different ways family can be made, and what the concept of family actually means in diverse contexts. A surprising, intriguing, and moving novel by a proven talent.”—Marion Abbott, Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore, Berkeley CA

“A daring and funny intergenerational family saga . . . Williams, a poet, brings a thrilling linguistic verve to this already-gripping story, and his restless experimental prose makes Reproduction fly off the page.”—Danny Caine, Raven Bookstore, Lawrence KS

“Williams’ Reproduction contains examples of the compromises and mutually agreed upon lies that bind families together. The ability of humans to wilfully ignore past misdeeds, to keep secrets for decades and forge on despite human frailty and failings are all clearly depicted in Williams’ story.”—Winnipeg Free Press

“In this novel about fathers who vanish and the families that spring up in their place, the Vancouver-based poet deftly weaves together the voices of a 14-year-old Black boy, a 16-year-old white girl and a motley crew of middle-aged parents who are all struggling to do right by their children—with mixed results.”—Chatelaine Magazine

Earn by promoting books

Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.sign up to affiliate program link
Become an affiliate