What We All Long for is an unstoppable page-turner grounded in geographies of diaspora mapped onto the city of Toronto. Winner of the 2006 Toronto Book Award, Dionne Brand's newest novel was released in the U.S. in January 2009. Tuyen, the artist daughter of Vietnamese parents, forms the center of the novel, and of Brand's Toronto. The narrative reaches back to explore Tuyen's parents' desperate anguish still smoldering years after losing a son while fleeing Vietnam in the 1970's and weaves a network between different generations in Toronto immigrant communities. Tuyen struggles with her unrequited crush on her roommate, Carla, and both of them balance their lives with the trials of their brothers -- Tuyen's lost brother, Quy, is present with her in the family myth and then in person when he finds his way to Toronto, and Carla's brother Jamal copes with city stereotypes and imprisonment of black men. The close of the book has raised discussion -- see what you think of the ending.
Author Dionne Brand immigrated to Toronto from Trinidad an Tobago, and she's at the center of Toronto's (and, indeed, an international) arts network. She's also a key figure in lesbian literature. An established writer and poet, Brand has published with feminist movement presses including Toronto Women's Press and Sister Vision, a Toronto-based women of color press. Brand is also a film maker and director of films including "Listening For Something...Adrienne Rich and Dionne Brand in Conversation" and the 1991 award-winning film "Sisters in the Struggle," about Black women active in community, labor, and feminist organizing.