{"product_id":"9780771034190","title":"the island on my back","description":"\u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor\/Contributor(s):\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003eMachado, Ana Rodriguez\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMcClelland \u0026amp; Stewart\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDate:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e3\/23\/2027\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBinding:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003ePaperback\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"\"\u003eNEW\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn poems and photographs, \u003ci\u003ethe island on my back\u003c\/i\u003e paints a portrait of a Cuban immigrant family in Canada, the people and life they left behind, the ghosts that remain, and the island responding, becoming something other than their remembered homeland.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWe wait for the sun to decide when everything ends. Las claves keep the rhythm. Here comes the rain.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith attention to personal and colonial histories, alive with rhythm and repetition, complex traditional forms and experimental hybrid modes, \u003ci\u003ethe island on my back\u003c\/i\u003e excavates questions of nation, family, and migration. What is the psychic toll of displacement? Is it easier to leave than to be left? Threaded through the tapestry of the poet’s own life, a vibrant chorus of clear-eyed, dynamic speakers urgently argue, question, recall, invent, mythologize, tell themselves and each other stories of what it is to be Cuban, to be of a place, to imagine the land and listen to its pain, to be displaced, diasporic, grieving, arriving, leaving, returning, constantly explaining, carrying an island on their backs. The island responds, \u003ci\u003eI feed my children the only way I know how: tell them to walk and keep walking until their feet run dry.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ethe island on my back\u003c\/i\u003e spans a whole life, a family’s life, \u003ci\u003ea nation plundered under the heat\u003c\/i\u003e. What remains is what the poet carries, what the people carry, and the poems made under that weight.","brand":"McClelland \u0026 Stewart","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48837810061567,"sku":"9780771034190","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/massivebookshop.com\/products\/9780771034190","provider":"MASSIVE BOOKSHOP","version":"1.0","type":"link"}