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Shop nowCereus Blooms at Night
Penguin Modern Classics Edition
Narrator
Shaquille James-Hosten
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Length
9 hours 8 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“Beautifully written and heart-rending, Cereus Blooms at Night is the story of Mala. Deemed crazy and dangerous by the townspeople and most of the caregivers at the Paradise Alms House, she is shackled to her bed and placed under close watch. Fortunately for her, and ultimately for him, Tyler, a nurse ostracized by the other nurses because of both his gender and sexuality, is the only one who agrees to care for her and who sees her fear and need for compassion. Mala’s is a story of extraordinary trauma and little happiness, but also of deep enduring love and its powers to heal. This is a deeply moving story so well told that I wasn’t yet ready to part ways with Mala at this book’s excellent ending.”
— Nancy • Raven Book Store
FINALIST FOR THE GILLER PRIZE
FINALIST FOR THE ETHEL WILSON FICTION PRIZE
Bold and lyrical, sensual and highly charged, Cereus Blooms at Night is the beautifully written, sensational first novel by Shani Mootoo, one of Canada’s most exciting literary voices.
At the core of this haunting multi-generational novel are the shifting faces of Mala—adventurer and protector, recluse, and madwoman. Told by the engaging voice of Tyler, Mala’s vivacious male caretaker at the Paradise Alms House, Cereus Blooms at Night is layered with unforgettable scenes of a world where love and treachery collide.
SHANI MOOTOO was born in Ireland and grew up in Trinidad. She has lived in Canada since the early 1980s. Her acclaimed first novel, Cereus Blooms at Night, was published in fourteen countries, was a finalist for The Giller Prize, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award. She is also an accomplished visual and video artist, and the author of several other novels, including Valmiki's Daughter, He Drown She in the Sea, Moving Forward Sideways like a Crab, and Polar Vortex. She lives in Edmonton.
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Reviews
“Dazzling . . . Mootoo creates a dense Asian-Caribbean world of buried secrets and desperate memories, a hothouse in which stories grow as lushly as flowers.” —Books in Canada“The passion of the characters, their insistence to live, to find joy despite the tyranny under which they conduct their lives, makes Cereus Blooms at Night remarkable.” —Shyam Selvadurai, author of Funny Boy
“[Mootoo's] language and characters seduce us away to a mythic place that is, by turns, as sweet as the first knowing of love and as hard as a callous blow. Inside the grand sweep of the story are the finely tuned details which mark a brilliant storyteller.” —Jewelle Gomez
“Working with magic, grounded by psychological insight, Mootoo weaves a deft design of vivid and sensuous scenes.” —Quill & Quire
“This ethereal first novel employs myth and magic reminiscent of Isabel Allende.” —Out Magazine
“Reading Cereus Blooms at Night is like reading a dream, entering a strange but believable world in which unusual possibilities flower like the cereus itself: evocative, pervasive, sensuous.” —Books in Canada
“A swirling cauldron of cross-generational history filled with violence, romance, aching beauty, and heart-breaking mystery.” —Sojourner
“[A] writer with a generous spirit and a gift for storytelling. We should watch where she travels next.” —The Globe and Mail
“Mootoo’s ability to evoke a physical environment is so convincing that the reader can taste the grittiness of lime dust on her own lips. . . . She is able to enter each character from their own deepest place of privacy.” —Lambda Book Report
“Like the titular cereus that blooms once a year at night, Mootoo at the climax releases a dense burst of aroma into this exquisitely exact novel.” —Georgia Straight
“Cereus Blooms at Night is a gem, a wonderful flower of a first novel; Shani Mootoo can be counted as one of our most gifted new writers.” —Vancouver Sun Expand reviews