Nowhere, Exactly: On Identity and Belonging

By: M.G. Vassanji (Author), 2024, Hardcover SHORTLISTED FOR THE WRITERS' TRUST BALSILLIE PRIZE FOR PUBLIC POLICYFrom one of Canada's most celebrated writers, two-time Giller Prize winner M.G. Vassanji, comes a thoughtful meditation on what it means to belong in the world.Home is never a single place, entirely and unequivocally. It is contingent. The abstract "nowhere," then, is the true home.M.G. Vassanji has been exploring the immigrant experience for over three decades, drawing deeply on his own transnational upbringing and intimate understanding of the unique challenges and perspectives born from leaving one's home to resettle in a new land. The question of identity, of how to configure and see oneself within this new land, is one such challenge faced. But Vassanji suggests that a more fundamental and slippery endeavour than establishing one's identity is how, if ever, we can establish a sense of belonging. Can we ever truly belong in this new home? Did we ever truly belong in the h