Andre Alexis on the themes in his Novels

André Alexis was born in 1957 in Trinidad and Tobago. His parents left for Canada when he was a baby. The family reunited in Ottawa when Alexis was four years old. He still remembers the trauma of this separation; it has coloured much of his writing since. Themes of absence, displacement, belonging and home animate his work. His debut novel, Childhood (1997), won the B ooks in Canada First Novel Award, and was a co-winner of the Trillium Award. Photo credit: Sari Ginsberg