Vendor
	Fritz Agency Christian Dittus
Original language
English

FRYING PLANTAIN

Zalika Reid-Benta

FRYING PLANTAIN follows Kara Davis in twelve interconnected stories rooted in Toronto's "Little Jamaica" neighborhood. It is a heartfelt coming of age story with crossover appeal, brilliantly tackling everyday experiences to explore themes of culture and identity - from being shocked at the sight of a butchered pig in her aunt's freezer, to being ditched by her friends to bracing herself for her mother's inspection before going out as teenager.

FRYING PLANTAIN, a stunning debut about a young Jamaican-Canadian girl that artfully depicts second-generation immigrant and cultural expectations, mother-daughter tensions and Black identity

Available products
Book Published by House of Anansi Press

Comments

Winner of the Kobo 2020 Emerging Writer Prize in Literary Fiction

Longlisted for the Giller Prize 2019.

Zalika Reid-Benta announces herself as an enormous voice for the coming decade (and one that is desperately needed). Not all must-read books are this enjoyable. -- Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story and Lake Success

Each story in Frying Plantain is achingly poignant, insightful, and funny; each a gem unto itself. Ms. Reid-Benta's fully sympathetic protagonist, Kara Davis, is a girl who belongs to neither Canada nor Jamaica, despite the fact that both places are home.' Her family - loving, flawed, and wickedly at odds with one another - all demand her loyalty, and her loyal friends aren't friends at all. As a collection, these stunning stories create a multi-faceted jewel of a book. -- Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of The Scenic Route and Rabbits for Food

Australia: Scribe;

Sharp-witted and sharp-tongued, Flying Plantain is written in the indelible ink of memory. Zalika Reid-Benta is a masterful storyteller with a light touch, a photographic recall, and a pitch-perfect ear for the ephemera we'd like to think of as youthful, but just can't seem to shake. This is an unforgettable debut. -- Paul Beatty, Booker Prize - winning author of The Sellout

UK: Dialogue (Little Brown UK)

Zalika Reid-Benta's first book - by turns effortless, vivid, funny, sad, and genuinely like being there - is as shiny as they come. Her spot-on capture of youthful aspiration, folly, and how family members tend to understand one another only in fragments make these stories a real pleasure - full of recognition, humour, and keenly observed lives in the here and now.Frying Plantain, a window into the world of growing upward and onward inside and outside family ties, is an absolute gem. -- Janice Galloway, author of Clara and All Made Up