All the Shining People
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
Finalist, 2023 Trillium Book Award
Finalist, Writers Union of Canada 2023 Daunta Gleed Literary Award
Finalist, 2023 ReLit Award for Short Fiction
Twelve exquisitely written stories depicting the search for human connection and the attempt to fit in far from home.
All the Shining People explores migration, diaspora, and belonging within Toronto’s Jewish South African community, as individuals come to terms with the oppressive hierarchies that separate, and the connections that bind. Seeking a place to belong, the book’s characters — including a life-drawing model searching the streets for her lover; a woman confronting secrets from her past in the new South Africa; and a man grappling with the legacy of his father, a former political prisoner — crave authentic relationships that replicate the lost feeling of home. With its focus on family, culture, and identity, All the Shining People captures the experiences of immigrants and outsiders with honesty, subtlety, and deep sympathy.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Kathy Friedman takes a stirring, up-close look at where our many identities intersect in this short-story collection. The people in these 12 intimate tales are all Jewish, all South African, and all connected in some way to Canada’s immigrant community. Friedman’s intimate writing made us feel incredibly close to each of them, from the trans man whose relationship implodes during an awkward family vacation to the girl miserably planning her bat mitzvah without having made a single friend at her new Toronto school. And while we loved that each story is colored with rich details from this unique cultural cross-section (tiny snippets of Afrikaans are sprinkled amongst mentions of kibbutzim and Purim parties), the characters and their complex feelings about home, community, and belonging are what made Friedman’s book so hard to put down. All the Shining People offers 12 different windows into the human experience and all of them are deeply moving.
