Cereus Blooms at Night, Shani Mootoo
Cereus Blooms at Night, Shani Mootoo
List: $17.00 | Sale: $11.91
Club: $8.50

Cereus Blooms at Night
Penguin Modern Classics Edition

Author: Shani Mootoo

Narrator: Shaquille James-Hosten

Unabridged: 9 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/15/2022

Synopsis

FINALIST FOR THE GILLER PRIZE
FINALIST FOR THE ETHEL WILSON FICTION PRIZE

Bold and lyrical, sensual and highly charged, Cereus Blooms at Night is the beautifully written, sensational first novel by Shani Mootoo, one of Canada’s most exciting literary voices.
     At the core of this haunting multi-generational novel are the shifting faces of Mala—adventurer and protector, recluse, and madwoman. Told by the engaging voice of Tyler, Mala’s vivacious male caretaker at the Paradise Alms House, Cereus Blooms at Night is layered with unforgettable scenes of a world where love and treachery collide.

About The Author

SHANI MOOTOO was born in Ireland and grew up in Trinidad. She has lived in Canada since the early 1980s. Her acclaimed first novel, Cereus Blooms at Night, was published in fourteen countries, was a finalist for The Giller Prize, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award. She is also an accomplished visual and video artist, and the author of several other novels, including Valmiki's Daughter, He Drown She in the Sea, Moving Forward Sideways like a Crab, and Polar Vortex. She lives in Edmonton.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Saajid on August 12, 2020

This was a phenomenal read. Foundational for all those delving into Caribbean literature!......more

Goodreads review by Monika on February 29, 2020

The non-linear narrative of Shani Mootoo’s Cereus Blooms At Night along with its simple, easy-to-grasp language stands in a stark contrast with what governs the lives of its characters. Set in a fictional town in Lantanacamara, Paradise buzzes with a vibrant flora and fauna. Whenever there is a paus......more

Goodreads review by marissa sammy on November 20, 2009

I grew up in Trinidad, so it's clear to me that Shani Mootoo is using Trinidad as the basis of her setting of Lantanacamara. Although I wondered initially why she fictionalized the setting, after reading the book I realized that it might be an effort to keep people from assuming that "this is what l......more

Goodreads review by Claire on February 06, 2017

Cereus Blooms at Night is the partially told story of one woman’s life, beginning when she is admitted to an alms house, suspected of having murdered her father and slowly unravelling back to the turning points, the highs and lows which brought her to be in the state she is in on arrival. It is a nov......more

Goodreads review by BookOfCinz on September 07, 2020

Having recently read, and loved Shani Mootoo’s recently released novel Polar Vortex I wanted to read more of her work. I was able to borrow a copy of her debut novelCereus Blooms At Night from a fellow Bookstagrammer so I could read more from her. The story opens with Tyler who is a nurse at an......more

Quotes

“Dazzling . . . Mootoo creates a dense Asian-Caribbean world of buried secrets and desperate memories, a hothouse in which stories grow as lushly as flowers.” —Books in Canada

“The passion of the characters, their insistence to live, to find joy despite the tyranny under which they conduct their lives, makes Cereus Blooms at Night remarkable.” —Shyam Selvadurai, author of Funny Boy

“[Mootoo's] language and characters seduce us away to a mythic place that is, by turns, as sweet as the first knowing of love and as hard as a callous blow. Inside the grand sweep of the story are the finely tuned details which mark a brilliant storyteller.” —Jewelle Gomez

“Working with magic, grounded by psychological insight, Mootoo weaves a deft design of vivid and sensuous scenes.” —Quill & Quire

“This ethereal first novel employs myth and magic reminiscent of Isabel Allende.” —Out Magazine

“Reading Cereus Blooms at Night is like reading a dream, entering a strange but believable world in which unusual possibilities flower like the cereus itself: evocative, pervasive, sensuous.” —Books in Canada

“A swirling cauldron of cross-generational history filled with violence, romance, aching beauty, and heart-breaking mystery.” —Sojourner 

“[A] writer with a generous spirit and a gift for storytelling. We should watch where she travels next.” —The Globe and Mail

“Mootoo’s ability to evoke a physical environment is so convincing that the reader can taste the grittiness of lime dust on her own lips. . . . She is able to enter each character from their own deepest place of privacy.” —Lambda Book Report

“Like the titular cereus that blooms once a year at night, Mootoo at the climax releases a dense burst of aroma into this exquisitely exact novel.” —Georgia Straight

“Cereus Blooms at Night is a gem, a wonderful flower of a first novel; Shani Mootoo can be counted as one of our most gifted new writers.” —Vancouver Sun

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List