The only snow in Havana

by Elizabeth Hay

"In one of the earliest works by the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner, Elizabeth Hay collects a series of reflections on life, identity, history, and love, drifting through her many homes -- Yellowknife, Mexico City, Toronto, and New York City -- to consider Canadian identity. Hay reflects on the idea of being Canadian -- what it means, who we are, how do we act, how do we live -- and compares it to the world around her in stunning detail, drawing the disparate locations together by their connection to the history of the early Canadian fur trade and our hearty adoration of snow. She writes of the heart of a country, the history of a people that live on the brink of identity. Blending memoir, biography, and history in a provocative intensity, Hay’s style and talent shines through in this early work, proving her well on the road to her long and lustrous career."--pub. desc.