Sweet Like Saltwater

First published in 1999, Sweet Like Saltwater is considered by some to be a modern Caribbean classic. Written by Indo-Caribbean-Canadian author Raywat Deonandan, it is a collection of award-winning short stories about migration and belonging. Widely critically acclaimed, it was awarded the national book award of the nation of Guyana (the "Guyana Prize") in 2000, in the category, "Best First Work."

These stories --about a fanatical cricket fan in rural colonial Guyana, an immigrant girl on the run on a Canadian backroad, a terrifying aquatic encounter in a faraway planetary colony of the future, a meeting of former neighbours on the banks of the Hudson-- probe with acuity and a wry sense of humour the very modern condition of human exile and the search for freedom and belonging.

REVIEWS:

• "Deonandan's prose is quirky and engaging . . . at its satirical best it is amusing and incisive..." -The Globe and Mail
• "An endless fountain of fertile imagination." -Pagitica Magazine
• "Each short story in this volume is exquisitely crafted, as if the writer creates each line like a work of art." -India Currents Magazine
• "I could already smell the flowers and spices, the ocean, hear the tigers and different tongues." -Danforth Review
• "Like other writers of South Asian background such as Michael Ondaatje, Cyril Dabydeen, Sasenarine Persaud, and Zulfikar Ghose, Deonandan helps readers to understand the enormous cultural diversity of our hemisphere." -Americas Magazine
• "Deonandan challenges his readers with the outrageousness that is our modern world, to sit back and ponder the notions of exile and belonging." -MyBindi.com
• "Psst, here comes a young writer, crossing your path almost noiselessly, who tells stories in such an unpretentious fashion that one is left wondering about the unbearable lightness of his craftsmanship." -The Caribbean Writer