Question - Brossura

“A seductively intriguing psychological novel about male-female relationships.... Treats the sense, the intuition and the intellect.”
–Hamilton Spectator

“Haunting and provocative....Clarke strips back the day-to-day quality of ordinary marriage, and reveals the clumsy iridescence of raw human want.”
–Globe and Mail

“Austin Clarke is a man who understands the power of language: the force of a few words that can make or break an argument: words that traverse the shaky narrative terrain between truth and lies.”
–Ottawa Citizen

“A gem.... The Question is mesmerizing in the best sense; it is poignant, and at times wonderfully funny.”
–Winnipeg Free Press

“There is a rare kind of psychological novel that focuses tightly on the relationship between two or three characters....The most successful of these, such as Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair and Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love, are notable for their intensity and their uncanny ability to capture the essence of a time and place.... [The Question] belongs perfectly in this company.... Clarke’s language is unstintingly sensual, the unveiling wandering voice of a poet lost in the body of a judge.”
–Globe and Mail

“Austin Clarke’s The Question is a powerful portrait of a complex and enigmatic character caught up in the politics of race, dislocation and gender. His mastery of dialogue and dialect and his humorous insights into the vicissitudes of human experience make this novel unforgettable.”
–Jury citation, Governor General’s Award

“[Clarke is] a consummate storyteller...”
–Quill & Quire

“While many first- and second-generation immigrant writers lucidly describe the alienation and confusion of cultural dislocation, few also tell poignant stories about human relationships that, without the force of their multicultural themes, would stand on their own literary merits.The Question does. It leaves the reader with unforgettable images of urban alienation and failed romance.... A moving read....”
–National Post

“This novel is very rich and will enrich those who choose to read it. The Question challenges us to think about personal, familial and national identity; cross-cultural relationships; immigration and citizenship; Canadian culture. About creating family and culture where we live, integrating what we bring with us into the place where we land. About making ourselves at home.”
–January Magazine

“What Clarke achieves in The Question is something akin to Ford Maddox Ford’s brilliant characterization of the unreliable narrator in The Good Soldier.”
–Vancouver Sun

Austin Clarke was born in Barbados, and came to Canada to attend university in 1955. He has had a varied and distinguished career as a broadcaster, civil-rights leader, diplomat, and professor. He has published ten novels, including the Toronto Trilogy (The Meeting Point, Storm of Fortune, and The Bigger Light), The Origin of Waves, winner of The Rogers Communications Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, The Question, a finalist for the Governor General’s Award, and, most recently, The Polished Hoe, winner of The Giller Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book. He is also the author of six short-story collections, including When He Was Free and Young and He Used to Wear Silks, When Women Rule,