Starry Starry Night - by Shani Mootoo (Paperback)

About the Book

"In Starry Starry Night, Mootoo gives us the singular voice of Anju Ghoshal, a young girl living in 1960s Trinidad. Through Anju's innocent and clear-eyed observations, the reader becomes both a witness to and a participant in her negotiations of an unexpectedly new and complex life, spanning from the ages of four to twelve. Set against the backdrop of a politically exciting time in Trinidad's history, just before and after it gained independence, we meet Anju's beloved Ma and Pa and her socially advancing family. While preoccupied with their own dramas, the adults around her often fail to recognize the needs of the children who depend on them"--

Book Synopsis

From celebrated writer Shani Mootoo comes an innovative and revelatory work of autofiction about family secrets, trauma, race, class, and loss.

InStarry Starry Night, Mootoo gives us the singular voice of Anju Ghoshal, a young girl living in 1960s Trinidad. Through Anju's innocent and clear-eyed observations, the reader becomes both a witness to and a participant in her negotiations of an unexpectedly new and complex life, spanning from the ages of four to twelve.

Set against the backdrop of a politically exciting time in Trinidad's history, just before and after it gained independence, we meet Anju's beloved Ma and Pa and her socially advancing family. While preoccupied with their own dramas, the adults around her often fail to recognize the needs of the children who depend on them.

Beautifully crafted and rich with sumptuous detail, this unique narrative coalesces into a portrait of a child who, despite her privileged appearance, must ultimately fend for herself because her safety depends on it.

Review Quotes

"Starry Starry Night reminds us what childhood feels like, but it also reminds us how clearly children see and how frequently we underestimate them." --The Walrus

"Starry, Starry Night is a masterpiece and one that will stay with me for a long, long time. Exquisite. Unforgettable. A precious gift." --49th Shelf

"A novel of remembering, of the times in our lives we carry around like a precious and hefty rock in our back pocket. A novel about learning to be--for ourselves--who we want to be." --Junction Reads

"In Mootoo's sensitive and tender portrait of childhood, Anjula's acculturation builds to an aching question: 'If everything dies, why does it have to go through the whole of living to get to dying?'" --The Grind

"Starry Starry Night is a stunning example of what "show don't tell" can do, the narrative so steeped in Anju's perspective that the reader feels her experiences viscerally." --Pickle Me This

"The combination of Mootoo's presence as a skilled storyteller and Anju's earnest, energetic voice creates an immersive and moving investigation of how, as children, we are shaped by the overlapping scales of family and national history." --Hamilton Review of Books

"The title's invocation of Van Gogh's painting proves apt. Like the artist's swirling night sky, Mootoo's prose contains turbulence within careful composition. The result resembles pointillism: individual impressions that cohere into recognizable forms only when viewed from proper distance." --The BC Review

"This was a beautiful novel. I loved what Mootoo did here: the writing is so true to childhood and excellently executed. Starry Starry Night was a fantastic story." --The Miramichi Reader

"Starry Starry Night will endure. Mootoo gives us a novel that is achingly alive, a portrait of the artist, a study of the languages instilled in us and the languages we must find, a living example of how art can breathe worlds, remembered, discovered, betrayed, beloved, shared, into life. As soon as the novel ended I wanted to begin again. This is Shani Mootoo's masterpiece." --Madeleine Thien, author of The Book of Records

"Starry Starry Night is a triumph of storytelling voice. Here, colonial history, fractured cultural space, and the sinuous complexities of kinship are each uniquely illuminated by the consciousness of a vulnerable child. This is a beloved book by a beloved author. This is Shani Mootoo at her most lyrical and intimate." --David Chariandy, author of Brother

About the Author

SHANI MOOTOO is the author of six novels, three collections of poetry, and one short story collection. She is a four-time Giller Prize nominee, and her work has been long and shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Lambda Literary Prize, and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. She has been awarded the Doctor of Letters honoris causa degree from Western University, is a recipient of Lambda Literary's James Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize, the Writers' Trust Engel Findley Award, and Library and Archives Canada Scholar Award. Mootoo was born in Ireland, raised in Trinidad, and lives in Southern Ontario, Canada.