Both familiar and strange, this story of a large Canadian city seen through the wide eyes of a naive and inexperienced young immigrant — wise in the culture of comic books — is both hilarious and heartbreaking. Samuel is just 17 when his mother dies and he is called to live with the father he has only heard of. He leaves his village in Trinidad and flies to Toronto, where he finds his father living in a place called Regent Park. Samuel is lonely in this “big mall of a country,” but he has his memories of superheroes — his mentors — to guide him, including the memory of an unusual friend who was two superheroes in one, as he sets out to explore what Toronto has to offer.

The Amazing Absorbing Boy

Literature & Fiction

Maharaj, Rabindranath

Contemporary

Knopf Canada

Seventeen-year-old Samuel, naïve and inexperienced, leaves his home in Trinidad for Canada following the death of his mother. He hasn't seen his father since he was six years old and now, thrust into a new life together, Samuel soon realizes that he is considered a burden. Undaunted, though still wide-eyed, and propelled by a comic book sensibility, Samuel begins to explore the vast foreign landscape that is Toronto. There he encounters molemen, super-villains, chimeras, trolls and a host of sidekicks. With his fourth novel, Rabindranath Maharaj gives us his best work yet, a powerful and funny story of a naive young immigrant who is wise in the culture of comic books, and a portrait of big-city Canada we have never seen before.

Dramas & Plays

Vintage Canada

It is 1961 and Trinidad, at once a lush island paradise and a poverty-stricken hole, is inching toward independence. Narpat, a sugar cane farmer, finds himself caught at the crossroads of a changing world. He is a hard-working man of modest means, and is sickened by the corruption and materialism running rampant on the island. He thinks his neighbors are greedy, shiftless, and enslaved to the rumshop. But Narpat is different. He contrasts the helplessness of the islanders with the resourcefulness of his ancient Aryans, and through a series of stringent moral codes and dietary injunctions, sets about to create order within his family and the village. His rules impose a great deal of deprivation on his wife and four children, and his wife must wage her own battle against her husband's ensuing neglect. Then Narpat decides to single-handedly build a factory to prevent the loss of his livelihood. Narpat's youngest son Jeeves watches his father's obsession with the factory, watches his mother's health decline, and watches as she dies. Unable to prevent his mother's death, he tries to redeem his father by constantly reminding him of the fables the older man told to his young children. And these fables with their undertones of pledges and duty steel the son for a terrible sacrifice. In A Perfect Pledge, Maharaj combines a Dickensian rendering of the effects of poverty, caste, envy, superstition,corruption and bigotry with vivid, complex characters and gorgeous writing, in a novel that celebrates both the resilience of the human spirit and the heartbreak of failed dreams.

A Perfect Pledge: A Novel

Farrar. Straus and Giroux

The Lagahoo's Apprentice

The Book of Ifs and Buts (Vintage Tales)

Short Stories & Anthologies

A Perfect Pledgeis at once a beautifully detailed novel about family life, a lively and abundant portrait of Trinidadian society and an ambitious, universal story of striving and strife. Following four decades of tumult – both national and domestic – this third novel by acclaimed author Rabindranath Maharaj is both deeply perceptive and strikingly unsentimental; it is full of singular characters and memorable, often hilarious dialogue. A Perfect Pledgeis a major addition both to Canadian literature and to the literature of the Caribbean. The novel begins with the birth of a child to Narpat and Dulari in the village of Lengua in the late 1950s. Geevan, known universally as Jeeves, is the son that Narpat, an irascible cane farmer, has long wished for to add to his three daughters. But, growing up in his father’s shadow, Jeeves develops into a scrawny, quiet, somewhat sickly boy–not helped by Narpat’s unusual dietary pronouncements, including his insistence that Jeeves eat properly purgative foods. On one level, A Perfect Pledgeis a compelling story of the intricacies of family life – of the complex relationships between husband and wife, parents and children – set in a lopsided hut with, when the book begins, no electricity or indoor plumbing. Narpat, the patriarch, is an engrossing character, a self-proclaimed “futurist” with no patience for religious “simi-dimi.” His ideas to improve his family and his village’s lot are sometimes inspired, but sometimes seem crazy; occasionally they fall somewhere in between. The novel follows the family’s progress, from the purchase of a cow named Gangadaye, through the children’s schooling, to Narpat’s almost solitary efforts to build a factory on his land, interspersed with accidents, weddings, conflict and much more besides. Through these events A Perfect Pledgebecomes a subtle portrait not only of Narpat but of the forbearance and irritation of his wife Dulari and their daughters’ clashing personalities, often seen through the observant, hungry eyes of the young Jeeves. But A Perfect Pledge takes up other subjects too. As well as the story of a family’s struggles, it is a vivid portrayal of Trinidad over the last four decades – a deprived and sometimes mad place lurching into modernization. Rural life on the island is particularly hard in the 1960s; the infrastructure is ramshackle and always on the cusp of being taken back by nature. But the village of Lengua is a cauldron boiling with village politics, Hollywood movies, neighbourly rivalries, ayurvedic healing and much else. And while it is both panoramic and empathic, A Perfect Pledgeis also a deeply pleasurable read: its elegant narrative tone is enriched by the astonishing improvisations of a Trinidadian English infused with Indian, British, American and other influences. Not a page passes without some jaw-dropping turn of phrase, from icy hots to scrapegoats, dreamsanhope to couteyahs. A Perfect Pledgefollows its characters through years of growth, challenges, and in Narpat’s case, eventual decline. As he gets older, Narpat stiffens into himself, his plans becoming ever more Quixotic and even dangerous. Jeeves, meanwhile, is trying to step clear of his bad beginnings and become an independent, self-sufficient man, while honouring his family ties (something his sisters conspicuously fail to do). A Perfect Pledgeis a funny and moving book that portrays the struggles of an entire society; but the difficult relationship between father and son is ultimately at its heart.

A Perfect Pledge

World Literature

A Perfect Pledge is at once a beautifully detailed novel about family life, a lively and abundant portrait of Trinidadian society and an ambitious, universal story of striving and strife. Following four decades of tumult – both national and domestic – this third novel by acclaimed author Rabindranath Maharaj is both deeply perceptive and strikingly unsentimental; it is full of singular characters and memorable, often hilarious dialogue. A Perfect Pledge is a major addition both to Canadian literature and to the literature of the Caribbean. The novel begins with the birth of a child to Narpat and Dulari in the village of Lengua in the late 1950s. Geevan, known universally as Jeeves, is the son that Narpat, an irascible cane farmer, has long wished for to add to his three daughters. But, growing up in his father’s shadow, Jeeves develops into a scrawny, quiet, somewhat sickly boy–not helped by Narpat’s unusual dietary pronouncements, including his insistence that Jeeves eat properly purgative foods. On one level, A Perfect Pledge is a compelling story of the intricacies of family life – of the complex relationships between husband and wife, parents and children – set in a lopsided hut with, when the book begins, no electricity or indoor plumbing. Narpat, the patriarch, is an engrossing character, a self-proclaimed “futurist” with no patience for religious “simi-dimi.” His ideas to improve his family and his village’s lot are sometimes inspired, but sometimes seem crazy; occasionally they fall somewhere in between. The novel follows the family’s progress, from the purchase of a cow named Gangadaye, through the children’s schooling, to Narpat’s almost solitary efforts to build a factory on his land, interspersed with accidents, weddings, conflict and much more besides. Through these events A Perfect Pledge becomes a subtle portrait not only of Narpat but of the forbearance and irritation of his wife Dulari and their daughters’ clashing personalities, often seen through the observant, hungry eyes of the young Jeeves. But A Perfect Pledge takes up other subjects too. As well as the story of a family’s struggles, it is a vivid portrayal of Trinidad over the last four decades – a deprived and sometimes mad place lurching into modernization. Rural life on the island is particularly hard in the 1960s; the infrastructure is ramshackle and always on the cusp of being taken back by nature. But the village of Lengua is a cauldron boiling with village politics, Hollywood movies, neighbourly rivalries, ayurvedic healing and much else. And while it is both panoramic and empathic, A Perfect Pledge is also a deeply pleasurable read: its elegant narrative tone is enriched by the astonishing improvisations of a Trinidadian English infused with Indian, British, American and other influences. Not a page passes without some jaw-dropping turn of phrase, from icy hots to scrapegoats, dreamsanhope to couteyahs. A Perfect Pledge follows its characters through years of growth, challenges, and in Narpat’s case, eventual decline. As he gets older, Narpat stiffens into himself, his plans becoming ever more Quixotic and even dangerous. Jeeves, meanwhile, is trying to step clear of his bad beginnings and become an independent, self-sufficient man, while honouring his family ties (something his sisters conspicuously fail to do). A Perfect Pledge is a funny and moving book that portrays the struggles of an entire society; but the difficult relationship between father and son is ultimately at its heart. From the Hardcover edition.

United States

Hilarious and poignant, Homer in Flight draws a brilliant picture of a chronic malcontent roving from high-rise to housing development along the 401 and the QEW. Homer remains utterly displaced, not because of what other people do or don't do, but because he lives in his imagination instead of embracing an imperfect but fairly benign reality.

Homer in Flight

Comics & Graphic Novels

Graphic Novels

Goose Lane Editions

Hilarious and poignant, Homer in Flight draws a brilliant picture of a chronic malcontent roving from high-rise to housing development along the 401 and the QEW. Homer remains utterly displaced, not because of what other people do or don't do, but because he lives in his imagination instead of embracing an imperfect but fairly benign reality.

Literary

BTC Audiobooks

A heartrending novel about one man’s search for meaning in a difficult life A child ridiculed for his weight, a son overshadowed by a favored brother, a husband who falls short of his wife’s ambitions, an old man with a broken heart… As Orbits’s life passes, he doggedly pursues a simple dream ― a little place in the country where a family might thrive ― while wondering if he can ever shake free of the tragedies that seem to define him.  Fatboy Fall Down is the lush and heartbreaking musings of a man trying to understand his place in the world. Though shot through with sadness, Fatboy Fall Down is also full of surprising moments of wry humor, and Rabindranath Maharaj's deft touch underscores the resilience of the human spirit.

Fatboy Fall Down: A Novel

Humor & Satire

a misFit book

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Maharaj, Rabindranath. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Maharaj, Rabindranath

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Maharaj, Rabindranath. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Amazing Absorbing Boy

The Amazing Absorbing Boy

A Perfect Pledge: A Novel

The Lagahoo's Apprentice

The Book of Ifs and Buts (Vintage Tales)

A Perfect Pledge

A Perfect Pledge

Homer in Flight

Homer in Flight

Fatboy Fall Down: A Novel