18 Napier Street

In the mid-1950s, close to a decade after the end of WWII, a mother and her six sons step off a boat that has transported them from a small village in Greece to a new home in Canada. Gus, the youngest, is four. In a tough working-class Toronto neighborhood, they rejoin Gus’s alcoholic father, who is still fighting the war in his head.

Their new home at 18 Napier Street will define the next twelve years of Gus’s life. Crowded under its roof are Gus, his parents, his five brothers and one sister, not to mention the resident rats and bedbugs. Food is in short supply, alcohol is not.

Through Gus’s eyes we see episodes of violent interactions, experience the sting of discrimination, and witness tragedy. But Gus’s world is a vibrant one: alongside him we watch him have fun with his friends, discover the thrill of go-carting, joyous street hockey, and both illicit and permitted adventures, as Gus and his friends embrace all that life has to offer. The close bonds Gus forges with his childhood friends are unbreakable.

18 Napier Street is about friendship, family, and community—what rips them apart and what binds them together.