About this Book

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Shortlisted for the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize

Like Wayson Choy and David Bezmozgis before him, Anthony De Sa captures, in stories brimming with life, the innocent dreams and bitter disappointments of the immigrant experience.

At the heart of this collection of intimately linked stories is the relationship between a father and his son. A young fisherman washes up nearly dead on the shores of Newfoundland. It is Manuel Rebelo who has tried to escape the suffocating smallness of his Portuguese village and the crushing weight of his mother’s expectations to build a future for himself in a terra nova. Manuel struggles to shed the traditions of a village frozen in time and to silence the brutal voice of Maria Theresa da Conceicao Rebelo, but embracing the promise of his adopted land is not as simple as he had hoped.

Manuel’s son, Antonio, is born into Toronto’s little Portugal, a world of colourful houses and labyrinthine back alleys. In the Rebelo home the Church looms large, men and women inhabit sharply divided space, pigs are slaughtered in the garage, and a family lives in the shadow cast by a father’s failures. Most days Antonio and his friends take to their bikes, pushing the boundaries of their neighbourhood street by street, but when they finally break through to the city beyond they confront dangers of a new sort.

With fantastic detail, larger-than-life characters and passionate empathy, Anthony De Sa invites readers into the lives of the Rebelos and finds there both the promise and the disappointment inherent in the choices made by the father and the expectations placed on the son.

Awards

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FINALIST 2008 - Scotiabank Giller Prize
FINALIST 2009 - Toronto Book Award

Review Quotes

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“In Barnacle Love, a set of interlinked stories, Anthony Da Sa moves with skill and ingenuity between folk tale, myth and narratives of contemporary displacement. The tone is spare and elegiac; the stories are filled with carefully chosen details and sharply drawn characters. They have immense emotional and truthful power.”
–Colm Tóibín

"Barnacle Love is a beautiful debut, haunting and elegiac, capturing lives at once as grittily real and as mythic as the sea that forms them."
—Nino Ricci, author of Testament

"Anthony De Sa's dramatic immigrant history is revealed in this series of linked stories often operatic in their tragic proportions and folk-tale in structure. With emotional power, incidents veer daringly in mood from brutal to tender. Anthony De Sa writes of the unbreakable connections between the old and new worlds with a revelatory passion. I have no hesitation in saying his is an astonishing talent."
—Wayson Choy, author of All That Matters

"This collection of linked short stories speaks poignantly about the wrenchingly opposing forces that can tear a family apart." –Edmonton Journal

"A moving and engaging read, its memorable images and heart's woes sometimes visceral in their power." –The Globe and Mail

"A book of exceptional balance. Tender and raw, morbid and surprisingly gentle. [It] will stay with readers long after the closing pages." –The Vancouver Sun

"Poignant....Irresistible." –Toronto Star

Reader Reviews

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"As an immigrant to this country, I enjoyed and related to the tension between new world and old world cultures, and torn allegiances. I liked the descriptions of disfunctional family life in the Azores, Newfoundland and Toronto, and even though the characters displayed some pretty nasty tendencies, they were all very relatable."
—Saul R, Ontario

"Beautiful and Haunting Story of an Portuguese Immigrant Family. Manuel was sent off to fish for his Portuguese village, as all other men and boys do. But he wanted more for his life, and wanted to get away from this life forever. This is the story about him and his family’s immigrant experience in Canada. This is said to be a book of linked stories, however, I read it as a novel. I loved the breath taking descriptions of both Portugal and Canada. Anthony De Sa paints a beautiful, at times haunting portrait of the immigrant experience. With sumptuous prose, he tells of the ups and downs of the Rebelo family. The only thing that I found difficult, is when the narrator changes from father to son, it took me a little while to figure out that the son took over. That said, I recommend this beautiful small book. In this case, good things do come in small packages!"
—Teddy R, British Columbia

"Anthony De Sa succeeds to capture the essence of drama through the main character Manuel. The main theme is the relationship betwen father and son. The chapters link together as the story unfolds. I thoroughly enjoyed this writing style and how this of a new immigrant is captured in such a poignant matter. I look forward to reading future works by Athony De Sa."
—Marla H, Ontario

"I liked the easy flow of Anthony De Sa's narrative style and would gladly read any future novels or short story collections he writes."
- Brenda V, Ontario

"I really enjoyed this book. Manuel was an interesting character and seeing the change in his personality as his great hopes faded was gritty and sad, but captivating to read. The ending was surprising and fit the progression of the story."
- Vicki H, Ontario

"This book was touching without being sentimental, moving without moving me to tears. I appreciated the different perspectives presented in the books and the very human fallibility of the characters. More basically, these are good stories, worth reading and remembering."
-Laura C, Ontario

"A great read. I am familiar with the now portugese area that De Sa writes about [...]so I could relate to the "colours" and descriptions of the neighbourhoods, and the lives of the immigrants. He is an excellent writer and though I am usually a reader of only non fiction, I did enjoy this read."
- Larry S, Ontario

"De Sa writes the story of every journey to this country, but also gives the particular texture of the Portuguese experience, at home and in a new land... the book is rich with the poignancy of dreams often dashed."
- Margaret D, Ontario

Related Links

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For more information, please visit the author's website.

Table of Contents

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Part I Terra Nova

Of God and Cod
Reason to Blame
Fado
Made of Me
Barnacle Love


Part II Caged Birds Sing

Urban Angel
Shoeshine Boy
Senhor Canada
Pounding Their Shadows
Mr. Wong Presents Jesus


Acknowledgements

About this Author

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Anthony De Sa grew up in Toronto’s Portuguese community. His short fiction has been published in several North American literary magazines. He attended The Humber School for Writers and now heads the English department and directs the creative writing program at a high school for the arts. Barnacle Love is his first book and he is currently at work on a novel. He lives in Toronto with his wife and three sons.