Art & Photography Books:

Saga Boy

My Life of Blackness and Becoming
Click to share your rating 0 ratings (0.0/5.0 average) Thanks for your vote!

Format:

Paperback / softback
$46.00
Releases

Pre-order to reserve stock from our first shipment. Your credit card will not be charged until your order is ready to ship.

Available for pre-order now
Free Delivery with Primate
Join Now

Free 14 day free trial, cancel anytime.

Buy Now, Pay Later with:

Afterpay is available on orders $100 to $2000 Learn more

6 weekly interest-free payments of $7.67 with Laybuy Learn more

Pre-order Price Guarantee

If you pre-order an item and the price drops before the release date, you'll pay the lowest price. This happens automatically when you pre-order and pay by credit card or pickup.

If paying by PayPal, Afterpay, Laybuy, Zip, Klarna, POLi, Online EFTPOS or internet banking, and the price drops after you have paid, you can ask for the difference to be refunded.

If Mighty Ape's price changes before release, you'll pay the lowest price.

Availability

This product will be released on

Delivering to:

It should arrive:

  • 19-26 November using International Courier

Description

Blending mythology and memory, Saga Boy follows a young Black immigrant's vibrant personal metamorphosis. Growing up as a clever, willful boy in a tiny village in the tropical forests of Trinidad--raised by his indomitable grandmother, Miss Excelly, and her King James Bible--Antonio Michael Downing is steeped in the legacies of his scattered family, the vibrant culture of the island, and the weight of its colonial history. But following Miss Excelly's death, everything changes. The eleven-year-old Downing seems to fall asleep in the jungle and to wake up in a blizzard: he is sent to live with his devoutly evangelical Aunt Joan in rural Canada, where they are the only Black family in a landscape starkly devoid of the warm lushness of his childhood. Isolated and longing for home, Downing begins a decades-long journey to transform himself through music and performance. A reunion with his birth parents, whom he has known only through story, closes more doors than it opens. Instead, Downing seeks refuge in increasingly extravagant musical personalities: "Mic Dainjah," a boisterous punk rapper; "Molasses," a soul crooner; and, finally, an eccentric dystopian-era pop star clad in leather and gold, "John Orpheus." In his mid-thirties, increasingly addicted to escapism, attention, and sex, Downing realizes he has become a "Saga Boy"--a Trinidadian playboy archetype--like his father and grandfather before him. When his choices land him in a jail cell, Downing must face who he has become. Harnessing the lyricism of an evangelical childhood into a flourishing and unforgettable prose all its own, Saga Boy is a poignant journey of overcoming, belonging, and becoming one's own self.

Author Biography:

Antonio Michael Downing is an author, speaker, and musical artist. His memoir Saga Boy was called "singularly dazzling" by Kiese Laymon and "the triumph of Blackness everywhere" by Scotiabank Giller Prize-winner Ian Williams. He has been shortlisted for several awards including the 2019 RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writer Award, the 2021 Toronto Book Award, and the 2021 Speaker's Book Award. He is also the author of the children's picture book Stars in My Crown and his debut novel, Black Cherokee. He writes and performs music as John Orpheus. Raised in Trinidad, Toronto, and Brooklyn, Antonio Michael Downing now lives in Kitchener, Ontario.
Release date NZ
November 12th, 2024
Pages
344
Audience
  • General (US: Trade)
ISBN-13
9781571311993
Product ID
35614965

Customer previews

Nobody has previewed this product yet. You could be the first!

Write a Preview

Help & options

Filed under...